Muse – 2012 New Album Preview

For Muse fans, it's been a long time since the release of the band's last full-length collection of original material, 'The Resistance,' in September 2009. But the wait is almost over -- the band is scheduled to release its sixth studio album this year, and here's what we've heard so far.

Last August, bassist Chris Wolstenholme announced the band's plans to head back into the studio during the fall, telling BBC1, "September and October, that's when we're going to get into the studio to start writing the new album."

In October, Muse manager Anthony Addis talked about the new material with Billboard, admitting that he hadn't listened to any of the songs -- "I'm not interested until they believe it's in the right form" -- but said he hoped the album would be out by October 2012 and added, "They've written a lot of material already but you don't know how it's going to gel between them all. They write constantly. They write on the road, so before or after a gig they'll write nearly every night. It's a serious process, but you don't know how it's going to turn out [until] you start practicing it together, because everybody's done it individually."

In late November, singer Matt Bellamy took to Twitter to announce that the band was about to commence recording, joking that the new album would contain a "Christian gangsta rap jazz odyssey, some ambient rebellious dubstep and face melting metal flamenco cowboy psychedelia."

Wolstenholme chimed in about his expectations for Muse's next step, saying that the members of the band "feel like we are drawing a line under a certain period of what we've done in our career. It feels like it's time to move on and do something radically different," although he was quick to admit that they "could get into the studio and go back to what you're comfortable with. You get in the studio and there's a natural process and you have to see where a song will take you."

Finally, the band used the hipster-approved image sharing website Instagram to reveal that composer David Campbell, who has worked on more than 450 gold and platinum albums, was in the studio with them.

We don't have a title or a release date, obviously -- but it's clear that the new album is coming along. How long can you wait to hear something new from Muse? And what are you hoping to hear from their next release?