Are they still here?
By the looks of the early release for this summers festivals, Pendulum are going to still be around with us in 2009. It probably says a lot about the music industry these days that these acts, which would have been dismissed as a fad act within 6 months and sent back to their day jobs are now dragging their carcass around for the long haul. No matter how many times Radio 1 tells you that this band is amazing; put it to the back of your mind. Perhaps these things are easy to dismiss as you get older but by god, we laughed at Apollo 440 when they served up this hybrid tosh and at least they had the decency to throw in some half decent samples. Pendulum, well they manage to combine the worst elements of metal and dance and the only surprise is that people haven’t christened them detal (a bit too close to a brand name for a cleaning agent) or mance, which is a bit too close to mince, which this track regrettably is.
‘Showdown’ is the track title but its only really discernable from the previous releases from the band because of the lack of shouting or vocodered lyrics. This instantly makes ‘Showdown’ the best Pendulum track this reviewer has had the pleasure of hearing but well, that's what people call damning with faint praise.
It doesn’t matter, people who need to be told what music to like, children and people with anger issues who like hitting stuff will get a kick out of this band, this single and the inevitable summer performances. Enjoy them and hang around watching them for as long as possible, as it’ll leave more room at the bar for the rest of us.