Pendulum (band) - Musical Style

Musical Style

When Pendulum was formed, their musical style was considerably more drum and bass sounding than the work they were known later in the career. Signature tunes such as "Masochist", "Vault", "Back 2 You" and "Voyager", which were released on labels such as Uprising Records, 31 Records, Renegade Hardware and Low Profile Records, have a darker, more amelodic air to them which is substantially absent from their later productions. The band's newer work is regarded as generally leaning heavily towards a mainstream, dance-driven sound. Early work such as "Another Planet" seems to indicate an early affinity with a more global sound, similar to other Breakbeat Kaos artists such as DJ Fresh and Adam F.

The group has produced various remixes of other artists also; one the best-known being the remix of "Voodoo People", originally by The Prodigy. In 2008–2010, they covered/remixed songs including Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", Linkin Park's "The Catalyst", Calvin Harris's "I'm Not Alone", Coldplay's "Violet Hill", and Metallica's "Master of Puppets". Pendulum's versions of "I'm Not Alone" and "Master Of Puppets" both exist as studio recordings but have not been officially released, and are only previewed during DJ sets. The original live version of "Master of Puppets" was played as an instrumental introduction for "Slam", and was featured on their first live album/DVD. During their American tour as the supporting band for Linkin Park, the song was played in its entirety, with Rob doing vocals. Pendulum have also remixed their own music and, on occasion, television theme songs, such as Australian television's "ABC News Theme" in May 2010. The remix proved to be immensely popular with listeners of Australian youth radio station triple j, polling at number 11 in the 2010 Triple J Hottest 100 countdown.

Pendulum's musical style consisted of a fusion of drum and bass (along with other electronic genres), alternative rock and heavy metal, with the inclusion of acoustic instruments. This creates a sound reminiscent of electronic rock, albeit with much more prominent drum and bass and, more recently, dubstep influences. Some songs, such as "Slam", "Propane Nightmares" and "Witchcraft" are synth-led, whilst others, such as "Showdown", "The Tempest" and "Comprachicos", are guitar-led. Bassist Gareth McGrillen stated in an interview on Channel 4 that they use 13 computers during the live performances, all of which are mixing the sounds produced by the instruments in real time. Rob Swire stated in issues of TJECK magazine and Rock Sound magazine that he would like to begin producing songs with a punk style to them, excluding the inclusion of electronic sounds in the near future. Pendulum were known to be fans of progressive rock and progressive metal bands, which may have inspired them to fuse multiple genres of music together, which is standard practice in those genres.