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If you’re looking for a definitive biography on Muse, this is it – mainly because at the moment it’s the only one, but also because it’s a bloody good read. Documenting the lives of both the band members and the band itself, with a particular focus on Matt Bellamy (considering he’s the brains of the operation/captain of the good ship Muse) author Ben Myers has spoken to/stolen quotes from just about everyone connected to the band to catalogue their astounding rise to superstardom.

Myers’ style is clear and simple, making the book quick to finish and easy to understand. He is informative while funny, and gives you a real sense that you’re being spoken to by someone who knows what they’re on about. His mentions of reviews he’s submitted to music magazines over the years see to this, although pose a question at the same time: why, if he is a journalist, is the book littered with so many mistypes, inaccuracies (such as calling The Offspring’s album Conspiracy of One ‘Minority of One’) and punctuation and spelling errors? This is the only beef with the book.

Through short-lived and shit band names, comparisons to Radiohead, sampling the ‘wares’ of far-flung countries, to headlining the world’s biggest gigs and making the most innovative music our universe has heard in years, Inside the Muscle Museum offers a comprehensive insight into the development of the band and a microscopic view of Matt Bellamy’s weird and wonderful mind.

Of most interest to Muse fans will perhaps be the insight gained into the band’s albums – how they were conceived and recorded, and what the songs mean. Muse lyrics aren’t the easiest to digest at times and it’s satisfying to have them explained from the horse’s mouth.

Also worth reading are the accounts of past gigs – ones that the band will always remember as well as the ones that they’d rather forget. While reading about the awesome gigs that you missed out on will no doubt inspire some jealously, you’ll get an idea of how they honed their now legendary live performances.

Buy this Muse-tastic tome here.

Some people have small dreams, like being able to go on holiday or to one day own their house. Others have bigger dreams, like becoming their country’s leader or building their modest business into a huge corporation. However, no one had a bigger dream than Ronald Mallett, the Professor of Physics at the University of Connecticut.

Rocked by the loss of his father at a young age, and inspired by HG Wells’ The Time Traveller, Ron fantasises of one day journeying into the past to warn his father about his dodgy heart and prevent his premature death. Whereas most people would give up on this idea after a few seconds, dismissing it as fantasy, Ron decides to pursue his dream.

Telling the story of both his growth as a person and a physicist, Ron (with co-writer Bruce Henderson) lays out the theories that impacted on his development of a theory for time travel. While his comments on general relativity, black holes and much more can be mind-boggling at times, the Professor is excellent at creating understandable analogies and turns what could have been a lecture in how he’s so much cleverer than you into an engaging and, at times, moving read.

Patience is probably the key to enjoying The Time Traveller. At times you will feel as if Einstein has raped your head, but stick with it and, eventually, all will become clear.

Buy this bad boy here.

Like every right thinking member of society, Jarred Christmas wants to be a hero. Of course, he does mean a stereotypical hero, that has a chiselled chin, a rock solid chest and perhaps most importantly, a big cape. In his conveniently titled “Hero Show” Jarred explains why he deserves the accoloade of hero, from his experience of rescuing wet dogs, to doing battle with a hooked man on a touch rugby pitch, Jarred lements about his failed attempts, as well as whether a hero is someone who defeats bad and protects the innocent, or just someone who stands up for what they believe in, even if what they believe in taking a child to buy a light sabre.

Following Jarred’s impressive debut “Geek Show” last year, it was natural that high hopes were to be expected from the Kiwi comedian this year, and in terms of performance, you couldn’t fault the show, with Jarred throwing everything into getting laughs out of the slightest slip or comment from the audience. It’s a shame that this show, unlike previuos efforts, takes a while to find its feet. That said, like a true professional, Jarred leaves the big laughs until last, and his lip synced musical finale could be one of the funniest five minutes in the Fringe this year. An enjoyable hour long show from an incredibly energetic and promising comedian.

Jarred Christmas – The Hero Show is on at the Pleasance Courtyard at 7.10pm

Regular readers of the metal press will know that there’s a formula for reviewing Korn albums. It’s not exclusively used for Korn, but they suffer from it more than most. According to this formula, Untouchables was a storming return to form after the disappointing Issues, Take a Look in the Mirror was a storming return to form after the disappointing Untouchables, See You on the Other Side was a storming return to form after the disappointing Take a Look in the Mirror, and now, Untitled Eighth… well, you can fill it in for yourself.

Korn’s major hindrance was to peak early. An immediately classic and influential debut (Korn), a slightly patchy but basically more-of-the-same follow up (Life is Peachy), a big, shiny, MTV breakout album (Follow the Leader), and downhill from there. Except it hasn’t been so much downhill as wilfully peculiar. For the record, let it be said that There Is Nothing Wrong With Issues, other than the fact that it’s called Issues. It isn’t nearly as whiny as its reputation insists, and it properly rocks. The enormous, three-years-in-the-making, multi-million dollar Untouchables recently won a Metal Hammer poll as the “embarrassing” album that its readers actually secretly most like (pace, again, it’s not anywhere near as crap as legend has it), and tellingly, their only real misfire is Take a Look in the Mirror; the album which saw them listening to their critics and half-heartedly stripping things back down to 1994 levels. A contemporary interview saw frontman Jonathan Davis saying something along the lines of “Uhh, yeah I remembered, like, some other stuff I was angry about”. It wasn’t convincing.

Untitled Eighth comes barely 18 months after predecessor See You On the Other Side; their dramatic rallying after Mirror and the loss of guitarist Brian Welch (to Jesus), which saw them controversially teaming up with Avril Lavigne uber-producers The Matrix. It’s very much a companion piece – perhaps their first album since Life is Peachy to have any sort of consistency with the previous one – and it seems defiantly vigorous despite their having lost another member in drummer David Silveria. Drum duties here are taken on by numerous session temps, including Davis himself, but Silveria’s most impressive replacement is Zappa alumnus Terry Bozzio. Bozzio’s contribution to the significantly titled first track (barring the short, weird intro) Starting Over kicks things off to a pretty goddamn thrilling start. Bitch We’ve Got a Problem is catchy, but seems a bit forced, as if the band is deliberately trying to re-bottle the Twisted Transistor formula that worked before, but the quality picks up again with the crunchy, Dawkins-friendly Evolution, where Davis’ voice is as powerful as it’s ever been.

Hold On begins exactly like Trash from Issues, but turns out to be a bit of a dirge and heralds the album’s slightly shoddy mid-section: the feeble and maudlin Kiss; the decent-chorus-but-otherwise-turgid Do What They Say; and the underwhelming Ever Be. But then Davis throws his head back and laughs, and it’s plain sailing until the end of the album. Despite The Matrix’s departure early in this album’s recording process, Love and Luxury is a radio-friendly unit shifter of the highest order. You can imagine it on the opening credits of an American Pie movie. But in a good way. Innocent Bystander is tear-the-roof-off heavy by comparison, and Killing is even fucking better. You wonder why they ever needed two guitarists. Seems like Munky is enough on his own. Things quieten right down again for the Coheed-esque Hushabye (which has the opposite problem to Do What They Say in that the verses are great but the chorus sucks), and the big finish is the proggy I Will Protect You, replete with Eastern influences familiar from Davis’ Queen of the Damned soundtrack, the trademark return of Davis’ bagpipes, and more berserk Bozzio drumming.

Untitled Eighth is like a movie that underwhelms to start with but climaxes so well that you leave the cinema beaming. It’s no better or worse than any of the band’s post Follow the Leader offerings (bar Mirror), and probably won’t change the minds of any Korn detractors. That said, it does feel like a rebooting of sorts: the finished statement of intent after the prototype that was See You on the Other Side, proving that (session musicians notwithstanding) Korn have a viable future as a trio.

Untitled Eighth is still recognisably Korn. It has the crunch and chug of their early stuff and the breadth and atmosphere of Untouchables, but it also takes them in some directions we haven’t been in before. Experimental but familiar, it’s the sound of Korn meeting us on the Other Side as promised, and saying “onward”! Where next?   Owen Williams

Buy this album here. 

The Harry Potter movies are pretty sweet yeah?

Yeah.

Let’s not get into the whole Potter mythology and the acting just now – let’s just focus on how the films look. With some of the best directors and cinematographers working today, combined with buckets and buckets of cash, each film looks more stunning than the one before and provides a ton of images that will burn their way into the movie world’s consciousness for the rest of time. Over the top? Not at all.

And now, for the first time, unit photography from all five Harry Potter movies available to buy for the first time. Over 300 images are available from the new movie picture website www.movieprints.co.uk. What sort of pictures? Pictures like this my friend.

It isn’t just shots like this though. How about Voldemort laying the smack down or Hogwarts hardman Neville Longbottom doing his thing? Yeah, that’s more like it isn’t it! They’re all there, just check out www.movieprints.co.uk to see the whole selection.

The result of a deal between Warner Bros Consumer Products and Comprints Ltd, a company specialising in Print on Demand (PoD) services, Potter fans will be able to order from this massive selection of pictures online as prints and canvases in a variety of sizes.

Each image is available in six different sizes of photographic print (in gloss, satin finishes and on art paper) and six different sizes of canvas. It will also be possible to buy postcards. Each product is made to order and dispatched directly to the purchaser, typically within 2-3 days. All the Harry Potter characters, from the well known to the more obscure, are available in over 45,000 unique product combinations. Sizes range from 8×6 inch prints to canvases of 1.25m.

Prices start at £5.00 for prints and £40.00 for canvases, and thanks to www.movieprints.co.uk The Void have got one to give away. A picture of your choice, worth up to £50 can be yours just by answering this question:

Who else should have died in the last book and why?

Chuck your suggestions over to competitions@the-void.co.uk and the answer that makes us laugh (or think – we’ve got brains too) the most wins!