If you like Muse, you will also like No Signal. The two bands are all but indistinguishable. Both offer classically-inspired keyboards, heavy rock guitar, choirboy voices and singable melodies. Distorted Reality is No Signal‘s latest album, released in digital formats in April 2023. (It’s not available on vinyl as far as I can tell.)

The opening track starts as a proggy piano concerto and soon turns into an impassioned song. There’s a message here, but the meaning in the lyrics is obscure. Perhaps the reference to ‘entropy’ is intended to remind us that the universe is governed solely by the laws of physics; it takes no notice of what we want or need. If we keep pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the climate will become unbearable for many of us. The waters are rising. There’s not much time to waste. “Entropy shall make its way”.

This leads into a hard rock guitar piece with a much more personal feel to it. “It’s too late to try with you”, the singer snarls. And the lyricist flaunts his extensive vocabulary by using the long-forgotten word ‘selcouth’ to mean unusual or largely unknown. But, unfortunately, it comes across as boastful rather than poetic.

Then, to complete the portfolio of No Signal styles, we are given an almost ambient ode to the sunrise. Again, there are lyrics, but their meaning has been distorted beyond recognition. “It’s a beautiful lackadaisical ethic”, say the processed vocals. And we can only wonder what we are supposed to make of that.

Spread across the remaining 13 tracks, the band gives us more nifty guitar licks, sophisticated keyboard excursions, rousing anthemic passages, a pleasing variety of textures, and words you need to look up in the dictionary. (‘limerence’, for example, is a state of deep infatuation or desire.) The notes are executed flawlessly, the instruments are layered expertly, and the parts are meticulously assembled. It’s a thoroughly pleasurable listen … as long as you don’t try too hard to understand the message.