Review Summary: Flawed But Highly Entertaining
It was inevitable. As soon as Pendulum started tweaking the classic drum and bass formula that made them so popular in the first place, people would start getting pissed. It's also inevitable that this album was going to happen, looking back on the guitar jams built into Girl in the Fire and the tonal back-and-forth of Hold Your Colour's Bipolar Vocal Mix (which is one of the bands best bonus tracks and highly worth checking out if you enjoy their early material). All that considered, In Silico had a lot of pressure on it from the moment Pendulum laid down the first note. So, now that we're 9 and a half years down the line and Pendulum has gone even further down the rock-drum and bass rabbit hole to even greater popularity, how does In Silico stand up"
In Silico is in no way a bad album. In fact, it's pretty good. Certainly worth a recommendation and more than one listen. That said, it's absolutely Pendulum's weakest album to date, featuring just as many forgettable throwaways as it does brilliant moments.
It starts off pretty strong with Showdown, making the usual Rob Swire grand declaratory statement of intent that shows up on every album he puts out. Showdown is a pretty cool track in that it manages to fill the duel purpose of mirroring the high-energy banger status of Slam from Hold Your Colour and completely laying all the cards of Pendulum's foray into rock on the table. Filled to the brim with guitar riffs, aggressive vocals, and acoustic drums, it's a track that does quite a good job of introducing you to the new direction Pendulum is taking without quite dropping you in the deep end like a track such as Self vs.
Self from Immersion would if it were to start off the album.
However, In Silico quickly makes a misstep with Different, a breakbeat track that ambles along fairly aimlessless for most of its runtime and ultimately ends up being a forgettable track. While Pendulum has always had a bit of a spotty track record with breakbeat, it's still a letdown to see such a bland track follow up something as cool as Showdown.
Fortunately, Pendulum pulls no punches with the third track, Propane Nightmares. With its distinct brass and guitar intro, memorable vocals, and deceptively simple riff gluing it all together. Like Showdown, Propane Nightmares melds energetic drum and bass with rock influences brilliants, incorporating plenty of guitars and acoustic drums alongside synths and more standard drum and bass percussion.
Hot on the heels of Propane Nightmares is probably the most underrated and subtly brilliant tracks Pendulum has written, Visions. Marking by far their best excursion in the realm of breakbeat, Visions features heavily vocoded vocals, a solid as hell beat, and one of the most brilliant riffs on the entire album. Confidently declaring "I'm gonna be a ***ing superstar," it solidifies Pendulum's destiny of becoming one of the most beloved and acclaimed bands in all of EDM. It honestly baffles me that this song doesn't have way more recognition, since it's a complete banger and has some of the best composition on the album.
The following track, Midnight Runner, suffers from the plight of being a fairly decent track in the discography of a band with quite a few completely brilliant tracks. Taken on its own, Midnight Runner is actually a really solid stadium drum and bass tune, but in the context of some of the more daring songs Pendulum has released, it ends up looking kinda bland. It's a solid track, no doubt about it, but not a very interesting one.
The Other Side is the last track on the album I can truly say is completely brilliant all the way through. A strange but enticing hybrid of electronic rock and breakbeat sensibilities, it ends up being one of the most sonically interesting tracks on In Silico, and the way the text-to-speech vocals are used in those post-chorus bridge bits is without a doubt the most compelling and out-there example of their several uses in Rob and Gareth's discography.
With The Other Side out of the way, we start moving into the tracks that represent this frustrating mix of genius and mediocrity. First up is Mutiny, perhaps the most overt example of rock influence on this album. On one hand, it features a particularly great chorus using vocals sampled from The Terminal (one of the more underrated tracks from Hold Your Colour) and a compelling riff. Unfortunately, apart from that, there's nothing else really here besides a fairly boring guitar solo that interrupts the flow of the song more than it accomplishes anything, and a competent but forgettable breakbeat section tacked onto the last quarter of the track.
9,000 Miles suffers from the same consistency of a few fantastic sections tacked onto a whole lot of repetition and generic EDM. Particularly great here is the short verse a quarter of the way into the song, as well as the tribal-drum and acoustic guitar buildup following it and that one super catchy synth line about halfway through. So now that we've got about a minute and a half to two minutes of great material, we've gotta pad out the song with four minutes of repetition and minimal development. It's a shame because these tracks aren't even close to bad, but just forgettable in the long run. They're certainly songs i'd listen to if they came up in a shuffle, but I can't think of a single time I've gone out of my way to listen to them.
The next car in the mediocrity train is Granite, a derivative mash of all the best bits from Showdown and Propane Nightmares without any of the memorability. It's all here: vocals so forgettable that I didn't even remember that they existed until I started writing this review, a synth line that's just barely not catchy enough to turn heads, the same stadium drum and bass beat without any of the bite it has in the other anthemic tracks on here. There's a bit of good stuff here, sure. The lyrics are pretty good, and that acid synth is pure soundgasm from a production standpoint, but excluding that and a particularly neat section near the end that I'm pretty sure samples some some harsh screamed vocals to great effect, the album really doesn't gain anything from Granite's existence.
Finally, we've got The Tempest. I'm honestly torn on this track, as it features some of the best moments in Pendulum's discography alongside some dreadfully unpolished elements in its seven and a half minute runtime. First off, the first two minutes of this track are amazing, no question. The way it builds from clean guitars and tribal drums to a driving half-time rock riff is ridiculously well composed, produced, and paced. This track also gets major props for being ballsy as ***. It's got very few drum and bass elements for the first five entire minutes of the track, taking a massive risk that fortunately pays off by making it a very compelling listen. Unfortunately, there are parts that are so unpolished that it makes the song really hard to completely enjoy. Firstly, the vocals from about two minutes in are way too strained and thin for the music. I understand what they were going for, but something about the way the vocals are processed and the way Rob sings them makes them feel a lot less epic than they should be in the context of the song. Secondly, the transition into the synth section at about five minutes just doesn't feel very good. It's abrupt, poorly paced, and too rough around the edges to do justice to the progression of the track, which is a shame because if it were just a bit smoother it would be one of the best moments on the album, and once you get out of that transition it resumes being a great song. Thirdly, Tempest also suffers from being a bit too repetitive. While it's not as evident as in Mutiny and 9,000 Miles, it really would have helped if a bit of variety were added to the backing. There are a couple detours taken mid-song that help provide an element of dynamics, and the bridge in particular is pretty great, but the alternate verse immediately following it suffers from the exact same issues of the standard aggressive verse. Despite these issues, I still appreciate The Tempest heavily for what it tries to accomplish in going all the way into rock while retaining the Pendulum sound and how much of that lofty goal it manages to achieve in the context of its hefty runtime and progression. When I say I'm torn, I'm not torn over whether I like it or not. No matter what, it's a great track. However, it's hard for me to decide whether The Tempest is merely great or truly a masterpiece. I may never figure it out. For all its flaws, it's a compelling experiment and a vital part in Pendulum's transformation into the drum and bass rock giant they become with Immersion.
With all that, In Silico does quite a bit of what it set out to do. It provides a great link between the pure drum and bass of Hold Your Colour and the rock heavy hybrid that is Immersion, all while laying down Rob Swire's intentions to constantly change and improve his songwriting skills. It's not a perfect album by any means. In fact, most of it doesn't even come close to the peaks of their other two albums (though Visions and The Other Side are certainly up there, along with the better parts of The Tempest). However, it's hard to deny that In Silico is fun as hell and extremely important in the context of Pendulum's career. It lacks the polish to quite measure up the standards of an 8/10, but it more than packs the punch for a strong 7/10.
P.S.
Also of note are the bonus tracks, three extra versions of Propane Nightmares. They're all surprisingly pretty solid. The VIP version is the weakest of the three, not quite deviating from the original enough to distinguish itself nor providing enough of an extra punch to establish itself as anything to listen to over the original, but it's a nice alternate take if you find yourself wanting some variation. The VST Remix is the second best, transforming the track into a spiraling electro house track with a great sense of build and a very different feel. It's not the best electro house in existence and I can't quite recommend it over the original, but it's a lot of fun and a great fit for your oldschool electro house mixes. By far the best is the Celldweller Remix, which amps the rock elements of the original up to eleven while managing to bafflingly be even more energetic than it too. I'd honestly consider this to be at least as good as (if not better than) the original track. Everything about this remix, from the drum breaks to the way the vocals are mixed to be clawing their way out of the walls of guitar that envelop the track to the scream that punctuates the final drop is pure adrenaline and it's glorious. If you can grab a copy of this track, I very highly recommend it.
Strong 7
(This review was originally published on RateYourMusic. Some of my opinions on this album have changed slightly, but overall these thoughts largely still apply to my current view.)
