Muse, the only band ever to find the formula for good rock opera, has returned with “The 2nd Law.”

The album retains all of the angst and calls for rebellion with lead singer Matthew Bellamy’s slow, heartrenching voice. 

But, like many artists, the band has embraced dubstep, which dips into every song and interrupts the guitar riffs coming through the music. 

The first track, “Supremacy,” was a huge surprise for me. 

It starts off slowly, leading you to believe the song will compare to previous Muse, but then the song takes a completely different turn—for better or for worse, you decide—and begins stopping and starting up, adding a variety of sound to its already electronic-heavy body of work. 

After that, Muse’s use of dubstep becomes more and more apparent, especially with the second track, “Madness,” where the first section of the song that features dubstep starts off slowly and softly. 

Have you ever heard of soft dubstep? 

Then it climaxes and powerful guitar riffs begin piling onto the song.

When Muse first announced their latest album would be a dubstep album, fans took to the Internet and complained about the band changing its sound. And while it seemed like Muse would never be able to pull it off, “The 2nd Law” silenced all of the haters who thought they would fail epically.

Besides the addition of electronic music, a mixture of glam-rock and jazz found its way into the final version of the album.

The best song out of the album is “Survival,” the official song of the London 2012 Summer Games.

It’s an inspirational song working in the lineage of a Queen anthem. It starts off softly and slowly, building anticipation with the sounds of an orchestra in the background and then breaking into a louder, faster sound brought on by guitars. 

Though they’ve dipped into a pool of new sounds, they have still retained the head-bopping, dramatic style of music that made them the band they are today. 

Muse is this generation’s Queen—that may be a bit a of an exaggeration, but I’ll risk humiliation. They have invested an amount of time scoping through the musical genres and found a sound that is truly authentic and adventurous. 

Like Queen, who never settled for the music guides provided for them—with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Under Pressure,” “Another One Bites the Dust”—Muse has written some complex songs centered around a very theatrical narrative. 

Their new album, like the previous ones, will be an opportunity to mount a spectacle on stage when the time for another tour comes around. As far as pushing the envelope with their newest sound, Muse has barely scraped at the possibilities. 

Jaime Lopez can be reached at 581-2812 or jlopez2@eiu.edu.