Pendulum- In Silico

[Starshot]

My thoughts:

The record shop down the street got advance copies of it. I picked one up for about $15, $5 dollars more then I would pay on opening day. However, because I typically am a sucker for Pendulum, I happily paid the price.

I quickly ran home and jammed the CD into my PC, awaiting the glory of this new album. Alas, my friends,

I was disappointed, very, very disappointed.

As most of you know, Slam was the opening track to Pendulums second album, Hold Your Colour. It started off with a RnB style breakdown and transformed into one of the biggest anthems the DnB community had seen since Ronnie Size. It rocked the world and set the scene for the rest of the top-notch album.

In Silico starts out with the track "Showdown," which, quite frankly sounds nothing like it should. I expected some absolutely amazing DnB anthem that would challenge glory that Slam did. What I got was something that sounded like someone had beatmatched DnB and Rock music. There was no rolling, rocking bass. There was no hard, distorted synth. All there was was a ****ing bassline and a guitar. Quite frankly, if it wasn't for that DnB style drumline, I'd consider it a rock track.

Pendulum is well known for making some of the most groundbreaking DnB on the face of the planet, but this album simply doesn't feel like them at all. It has much more of a rockish flavor to it. While that appeals to most out there, hardcore Pendulum fans (like myself) will find themselves remarkably disappointed. While the album does pick up with more grade A tracks near the end (Mainly 9,000 miles and Granite), it simply doesn't make up for the overall lack of the style of DnB Pendulum is famous for. Pendulum was known for doing amazing job of telling a story in a song with simple samples (Fasten Your Seatbelt and Slam are key examples), but this album simply doesn't have that kind of style or forte.

All and all, it feels far too "rocky" then it should, and doesn't nearly break the glory that Hold Your Colour brought forth into the music world, but it'll keep rock fans coming back for more and "old school" Pendulum fans in the dark for most of the album. Then again, with the quality that Hold Your Colour was, I don't know if we'll ever see a true sequel of that caliber.

6/10

Favorite Tracks:
The first half of Mutiny, before the guitar solo.
9,000 Miles- Possibly the best track on the album
Granite- This is the kind of track I expected them to open the album with, not end it.


I'm going to go listen to The Girl in the Fire on repeat.

[jugglinguy]

That sucks terribly. But how could they really top Hold Your Colour (especially), and Slam?