Biffy Clyro have announced details of a new album – ‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ is out next month.

Following their epic headline sets at Reading & Leeds 2021, Biffy have revealed that their ninth album will be released on October 22. The record is being billed as “a reaction” to the band’s 2020’s ‘A Celebration Of Endings’, and is being previewed today (September 3) by the six-minute first single ‘Unknown Male 01’ – listen to that below. This comes after the Scottish trio previously confirmed to NME that they were working on a “sprawling sister record“.

“This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months,” frontman Simon Neil said of the new record today. “There was a real fortitude in ‘A Celebration’ but in this record we’re embracing the vulnerabilities of being a band and being a human in this twisted era of our lives.

“Even the title is the polar opposite. It’s asking, do we create these narratives in our own minds to give us some security when none of us know what’s waiting for us at the end of the day?”

Listen to first single ‘Unknown Male 01’ below:

Speaking about the album’s first single’s themes of loss, Neil added: “When you lose people that you love deeply and have been a big part of your life, it can make you question every single thing about your own life.

“Like a lot of creative people, I struggle with dark thoughts. If you’re that way inclined you realise you’re staring at darkness, but you don’t want to succumb. Those moments don’t stop. As the song says, ‘The devil never leaves.’ There’s never a day where you wake up thinking, ‘I feel great, it won’t cross me ever again.’”

See the artwork and tracklist for ‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ below. Fans can pre-order the album here.

1. ‘DumDum’
2. ‘A Hunger in Your Haunt’
3. ‘Denier’
4. ‘Separate Missions’
5. ‘Witch’s Cup’
6. ‘Holy Water’
7. ‘Errors in the History of God’
8. ‘Haru Urara’
9. ‘Unknown Male 01’
10. ‘Existed’
11. ‘Slurpy Slurpy Sleep Sleep’

“This is a reaction to ‘A Celebration of Endings'. This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months." – Simon Neil

THE MYTH OF THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER – coming 22/10. Pre-order the album at: https://t.co/5L7aQLZ3NE pic.twitter.com/RkHdZqpOmT

— Biffy Clyro (@BiffyClyro) September 3, 2021

Back in May, NME spoke to Biffy Clyro on the red carpet at the 2021 BRIT Awards, where the band revealed they had finished their new album the previous week.

“We weren’t intending on doing it, but we’ve ended up making an amazing album,” Neil told NME.

Asked if the album could still be considered a “sister record” to its predecessor, Neil replied: “Originally it was going to be completely hand-in-hand. They do relate, but because we didn’t tour I ended up writing about seven or eight new songs for the album. Originally it was intended to be a few off-cuts from ‘A Celebration Of Endings’, but now it’s got wonderful new art and it’s kind of its own beast.

“The lyrics correspond at certain points and there are a lot of Easter eggs for fans in there, but it’s a proper record. It’s not like we headed in, rushed it and banged out a few songs – it has become this epic ‘meister werke’, if I can say that about our band, which I can’t. I’ve turned full dickhead now! I’m sorry.”

Opening up further about the album’s lyrical themes, he continued: “It’s about that reflection of how you can experience the same thing but react in a completely different way. We’ve all had this huge global experience, but we’ve not had the same experience for many, many reasons – and I feel that’s what the record is about.

“It’s about the aftermath of coming through something together, but also not being able to comprehend what someone else is going through. We’re all trying to make the best of that.”

Neil added: “It’s still a fairly positive outlook with a shit tonne of bone marrow nihilism going down inside of it.”