Scotland's
Biffy Clyro had been linked to the sportswear punk of
blink-182,
Green Day, and
Sum 41 and were championed for sounding more raw and less obvious than any of their contemporaries. But while their debut, 2002's
Blackened Sky, hunched over with a gray, very American anger, it also lacked the ideas or abnormal structures of favorites
Fugazi and
Mudhoney. "Hero Management" was probably the most successful mixture of spangly basslines and damp indie rock, but, unlike
Seafood, an outfit they're more accurately compared to, the band came across as all of the least interesting aspects of American grunge released a decade too late. ~ Dean Carlson