[3] It was supported by an expansive world tour with appearances at several festivals and arenas, lasting from 2015 to 2016 and grossing $88.5 million from 132 shows.

[10][11][12] After having self-produced their previous two albums, Muse worked with producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange to spend less time mixing and reviewing takes and focus on performance.

[14] On 1 April 2015, drummer Dominic Howard and mixer Rich Costey indicated on their Instagram accounts that they had finished mixing the album.

[23] The story begins with "Dead Inside", where the protagonist loses hope and becomes vulnerable to the dark forces of "Psycho".

[24] Answering fan questions on Twitter in September 2014, Bellamy said the album's themes include deep ecology, the empathy gap, and World War III.

[32] On 12 March, Muse released a lyric video for "Psycho" on their YouTube channel, and made the song available for download with the album pre-order.

[36] On 23 March, "Dead Inside" was released as the album's lead single with a lyric video on Muse's YouTube channel.

[42] In an album review for The Observer, Kitty Empire commented that the pacy song "Reapers" "exposes the overlap between the unfeeling destruction of drone warfare and the unfeeling destruction wrought by people tearing each other apart," referring to Muse frontman Matt Bellamy's break-up from fiancée Kate Hudson.

Bellamy confirmed they would tour North America in late 2015 and Europe in 2016, and also said they would be flying drones over the audience during the shows.

[49] The new tour stage set up featured 11 LED pillars which could be manually pushed back and forth by members of the crew to accommodate the show.

gave Drones a perfect score, calling it "a claustrophobic classic that sharpens the focus of what is possible in the name of high-minded rock.

"[57] AllMusic wrote that "it's hard to avoid [Muse's] conclusion that war is bad, but this inclination to write everything in bold, italicized capital letters is an asset when it comes to music.

"[23] Kitty Empire of The Observer wrote that despite the "trite" lyrics and "confusing" plot, some of Drones was "fist-pumpingly ace; a timely restatement of the need for popular music to evoke both thought and dopamine rush.

"[60] Ian Cohen of Pitchfork found that Drones lacked subtlety and criticised its lyrics, writing, "Whatever pleasure can be generated from Bellamy's admirable melodic sense and overblown hooks is negated by Muse's insistence that they're profound rather than fun.

"[58] Oliver Keens of Time Out London called the album's handling of the drones subject matter "tactless and crass" and its story "as dull as dog food – told with the wishy-washy flim-flam of a frothing conspiracy theorist ... We used to moan that musicians didn't write about politics anymore.

"[61] Rolling Stone named it the 38th best album of 2015, calling it a "searing commentary on our era's vague dread, computer-driven death from above and Orwellian political climate ...

"[62] The Daily Telegraph wrote that "It's more than a little Spinal Tap, but if I was a teenage boy this is exactly the kind of thrilling madness that might turn me on to a moribund genre.

"[63] The Evening Standard gave it four out of five and wrote: "Prog phobics might dismiss it as latter-day Pink Floyd with a dash of Noam Chomsky.

"[64] On the UK Albums Chart, Drones debuted at number one with sales of 72,863 copies, the third-highest opening of 2015 up to that point.

[70] The album replaced How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful by Florence and the Machine in the previous week, the first time two British artists had debuted consecutively at number one on the US chart since 1956.