Biffy Clyro - Victory Over The Sun

Biffy Clyro are a Scottish rock band forming in Kilmarnock in 1995

and have released six albums. After their fifth they took a two year
break in which they wrote Opposites a double edition CD. To quote
Simon Neil - Biffy Clyros lead singer and guitarist the idea behind
the two discs were to Create an exact opposite vibe to the other
lyricallyone is about putting things in the worst possible way. The
other looks at things more positively. The fourth song on the first
disk is Victory over the Sun a powerful rock epic omitting diverse
musically interesting features.
The song introduces itself with an anacrusis on a synthesiser. To kick
off the introduction Simons Fender Telecaster Custom tuned to drop
D plays for eight bars in two bar phrases. These consist of ten
quavers in the first bar and two crotchets in the second. This is due
to the clever use of the unconventional time signature of 5/4
followed by 4/4 giving us the first phrase of the intro. Ben Johnston
and his drums lead us from the intro to the first verse at 151 beats
per minute reasonably fast for a rock song however giving the song
another special edge. Due to the strange time signature the drums
sound syncopated against the guitar whilst playing at a mezzo forte
dynamic level. Attached is a transcription of what the drums are
playing in the intro.
The first verse continues from the intro in the same guitar phrase
however now the vocals enter at the ninth bar into the song again at
a mezzo forte dynamic level. An accompanying string section is
introduced at bar seventeen crescendoing from pianississimo to
mezzo forte until bar twenty four.
Up until bar forty four Victory over the Sun flows together
articulated in an almost legato feel however as the music reaches the
second half of its verse the music turns undoubtedly staccato. Along
with this change in feel the time signature changes to strictly 4/4.
Helping raise the song in a risoluto manor the dynamics change from
mezzo forte to forte.
Moving to an eight bar chorus consisting of two four bar phrases the
music takes a drastic lift in power moving to pesante, heavier yet
than anything heard previous in the song and distinctly fortissimo.
Also to be noted is yet another time signature change for the chorus
to 7/4 to contrast and stick out as a chorus should. With a stecato
and deciso section starting in the fifth beat of the fourth bar the
music moves together in quavers to the end of the bar.
Following the drop back to a second verse a double chorus punches
the song to a dramatic finish. In the ninth bar of the double chorus
strings reintroduce themselves in the third beat of the bar this time
however louder at a forte dynamic level. To bring the song to a close
the intro in now used as the outro however only two bars long rather
than eight. With the help of a perdendosi and diminuendo the last
bar of the music fades away to a pianississimo dynamic.
Biffy Clyro have shown us they have a wide and varying variety of
musical techniques at their disposal and promise to show us even
more in years to come.