Live photos

The album was released on 3 July, 2006 in the UK and across the next few days it was released in the USA, Australia, Taiwan and Japan. The album was also available as a limited edition CD/DVD combination, that featured videos and live renditions of the band playing "Supermassive Black Hole", "Knights of Cydonia" and "Starlight". The album received double platinum jessica marttila certification in the UK on 22 December, 2006.^[2] Singles were released in both the UK and the US, though they were released in different orders in each country. All singles excepting "Map of the Problematique" were available on vinyl, CD, DVD (containing the music video for the single) and as a digital download.

The album was well-received by critics; Dean Carlson of Allmusic commented on the album saying, "...if you want to sound like Radiohead when even Thom Yorke doesn't want to sound like Radiohead, you might as well take it to such preposterous, bombastic, over-the-top-levels".^[11] album cover meaning muse black holes and revelations Whereas NME gave the album 9/10 with Roger Morton writing, "It's amazing for such a young band to load up with a heritage that includes the darker visions of Cobain and Kafka, Mahler and The Tiger Lillies, Cronenberg and Schoenberg, and make a sexy, populist album. But Muse have carried it off".^[12]

The band also makes use of prominent, distorted bass lines to add a heavier, more intense feeling to their concert rockall luxembourg riffs.