A 'comedown' album: Expect the twisted and dark sounds of coming back down to Earth on the morning of a heavy night before. "I've got a pretty good picture of what I'd like the next album to be like," Matt Bellamy told Rolling Stone last year. "It's the comedown and the sort of waking up the next day being like, 'What the fuck? What the fuck? That was crazy'...I kind of feel like it will be nice to reconnect and remind ourselves of just the basics of who we are."

A stripped back rock affair: It seems the band have grown weary of the heavy orchestration and electronic sounds on their last few albums, and are now leaning back towards to the more guitar-heavy rock of their first two records: "I kind of feel like it will be nice to reconnect and remind ourselves of just the basics of who we are," said Matt Bellamy. "I have this strong feeling that the next album should be something that really does strip away the additional things that we've experimented with on the last two albums, which is electronics, symphonics and orchestral work and all that kind of stuff."

Well, sort of: Don't expect a bunch of tracks like 'Agitated' or 'Yes Please' - Muse are hell-bent on moving forwards. Bellamy added: "When I say I want to go back, I don't mean go back to the kind of music we made when we started. That would be disastrous. I mean, go back to the mentality that we had when we started, which was just us wanting to be good on instruments and wanting to play together and make music that was organic in nature. I think that will be where we set off on our next album."

The true 'sound' of Matt, Dom and Chris: Muse certainly won't be hiding behind any sonic trickery this time around, with Bellamy saying that he really wants the personality and relationship between the three childhood friends to shine through on the album. "In some ways, the band has gone on this pretty insane journey since we formed as teenagers," he said. "Back then, we weren't very outgoing on stage. We were very sort of off to ourselves, hiding behind the music. In some ways, the Rome gig almost represents a complete upside-down journey of personality from where we started. I want to bring it back to just being about the music that we are playing, about the instruments, the guitar, the bass, the drums and these personalities."

It will be pretty considered: Sorry, Muse fans - Chris Wolstenholme told us that "I don't think we will do any UK festivals until the next album is out". Bad news for anyone hoping for that 20th anniversary tour, but good news that just want them to knuckle down and finish the record.

It could evolve into something else entirely: Speaking to Gigwise last year, Wolstenholme said: "I think it's always hard to say until you actually get in the studio because songs often end up in a very different place to where they started, but I think the initial idea is to keep things a bit rawer and more rock initially. We will see where it takes us."

It could be self-released: Not only have the band just come to the end of their six album record deal, but they recently signed with Q Prime Management. Many believe that Muse are likely to release future music via their own record label, Helium-3 - a sub-division of Warner formed by the band before the release of Blackholes And Revelations. Interestingly, Metallica are also managed by Q Prime - who took control of their own affairs by forming Blackened Recordings in 2012. Could Q Prime be the perfect team to lead Muse in conquering their own future?

Of course it's going to be a concept album: Speaking to Radio.com last year, Matt Bellamy said: "The main focus is we're gonna record a bunch of music, probably a conceptual album of some kind, so it probably will be album length."

It might not be released traditionally: Maybe Muse will do a Beyonce and unexpectedly drop it on iTunes? Knowing them they'll probably stream it from the moon or something daft. Either way, we know it won't be normal, after Bellamy told Radio.com last year: "The industry is moving so fast, you don't really know. I don't think we'll be ready to put another album out until early 2015 or something, and I think around that time we'll just look at what's going on and make a judgement in the moment rather than thinking ahead, because things are changing so quickly."

It will be out of this world: Now they're a supermassive international sensation, free of a record deal and with new management, Muse are in the best position to do whatever the hell they want. From game-changing live shows and 'ultra-HD' concert movies to a shamelessly taste-free operatic sound and setting fire to the London 2012 Olympics - bands don't come much more bat-shit mental. As well as having no one but themselves to answer to when it comes to their musical output, the future could see Muse releasing their own movies - just like Metallica did with Through The Never.

A summer 2015 release date: Speaking to Triple J last year, Bellamy said: "I've written some good tracks, actually. We haven't had a chance to rehearse them out yet. We'll take a break next year for a little few months and then we'll get in the studio. If it all goes very well, the new album could well be early 2015 or late 2015." Bellamy then clarified on Twitter that it should be out by 'next summer'. The band then said the same thing to fans during recording sessions in Vancouver.

An accompanying 'making of' documentary: As with their past few albums, the band are documenting the writing and recording process - as suggested by this Instagram post and confirmed when talking to fans in Vancouver.

There will be slide guitar, piano and the sound of 'pyscohological abuse' : Yup, the usual insane blend of rock sounds have all been revealed on the band's Instagram page - including some shouting from an army drill sergeant.

Classic rock production, courtesy of Robert 'Mutt' Lange: Muse have revealed that they're working with none other than legendary AC/DC producer on their new album. They wrote: "We are honoured to be making our new album with this legendary producer. #backinblack". The band have self-produced their last two records, so this is going to be pretty special - especially as Lange worked with AC/DC on Back in Black, Highway to Hell and For Those About to Rock We Salute You - not to mention the likes of Def Leppard, Foreigner, Bryan Adams and even Lady Gaga, Shania Twain and Britney Spears.

War and raw riffs: In a Twitter Q&A with fans, Mr Matt Bellamy that the album's themes deal with "deep ecology, the empathy gap and World War 3". There may be high levels of irony in this part. He also revealed that his disdain for guitar solos has mellowed on the new album, and mentioned a "sequel" to Origin Of Symmetry track 'Citizen Erased'. Later, speaking to fans in Canada, he said the album was loaded with "heavy riffs", which he likened to the sounds of Absolution and Black Holes & Revelations.

It will be called Drones: After first being teased as a working title in a video of the control panel from the studio, Muse have seemingly confirmed the name of LP No.7 with a series of cryptic images of the trio with scratched out eyes and the hashtag #MuseDrones.