Pendulum

We’re living in a world where genres are becoming progressively meaningless. Thanks to the advent of the MP3 and streaming age everyone listens to everything and the music actually being made is becoming more interesting, reckless and experimental as a result. One of the bands who genuinely get that these barriers between tribes are breaking down is a British and Australian band called Pendulum. These guys made the quite frankly genius realisation that the aggression and intensity of a heavy metal how isn’t that far removed from the anything goes anarchy of a rave, and decided to make music that combined the two extremes as best they could.

The band began with Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen, two musicians who’d performed in a number of heavy metal bands between them. Both men were already fans of most forms of electronica, but only Swire knew how to create it on his laptop. So while he and McGrillen were playing in the band Xygen together, he decided to teach McGrillen how to make drum and bass tunes using only basic production software. The duo found that they had a lot of chemistry creating music together and formed Pendulum as a DJ act, but soon after they began performing in clubs together they were joined by Paul Harding to make the nascent band a trio.

2003 saw the release of their first single “Vault”, and with that they were signed to Breakbeat Kaos, a record label based in London, England. Riding a wave of genuine hype for their sound and their apocalyptic live shows, they released their debut album “Hold Your Colour” in 2005, which charted in the U.K and was a genuine hit in Australia, being certified Gold with aplomb. With their burgeoning success, the trio expanded to a sextet in order to perform with a full band, drafting in a guitarist, drummer and MC while Swire sung lead vocals, McGrillen played the bass guitar and Harding stayed behind a set of decks.

Ever since then, the band have been one of the most impressive live bands around. Three years into their career and they were able to play enormous shows at Glastonbury, T In The Park, Bestival and Download Festivals along with their own headline concerts at venues like the 12’000 capacity Wembley Arena. They also saw a great degree of commercial success, with their third album “Immersion” peaking at number one on the U.K album charts and going platinum in the same country. Their singles “Granite” and “Watercolour” were top ten hits there as well, and though they might be on hiatus currently, you can bet that when they return they’ll still be blowing the roof off every venue they play. Highly recommended.