Absolution is the third studio album by English alternative rock band Muse. It was released on 21 September 2003 in the United Kingdom on Mushroom Records and A&E Records and on 23 March 2004 in the United States by East West Records and Taste Media. The album followed its predecessor's tendency, increasing its heaviness and intensity alongside its ambitious thematics, this time trended to apocalyptical concepts. In 2009, it was voted by Kerrang! as the second-best album of the 21st century thus far. (Muse's previous album, Origin of Symmetry, and their subsequent release, Black Holes and Revelations, also appeared in the top fifty).