In Silico might be the second album from Pendulum, but it's their first as a fully-fledged rock band. Of course, this Australian dance collective have paddled in these waters before: their debut album Hold Your Colour was a muscular collection of hard drum'n'bass and slamming breakbeats that, for all its synthetic construction, displayed firmly rock sensibilities. On In Silico, though, hard-riffing guitars are pulled right up in the mix, and the band's production core, Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen, lead from the front, reaching for the microphone and making clattering loops the bedrock for a suite of anthemic rockers. Comparisons to the likes of Enter Shikari and The Prodigy are not too wide of the mark, capturing something of Pendulum's fairground waltzer adrenaline and polished, metallic aggression. Beyond straightforward rush, though, some interesting ingredients find their way into the brew: storming opener "Slowdown" imagines an unholy synthesis of DJ Hype and Muse in full progressive rock-out mode, while the elegiac "Propane Nightmares" commences with a Mariachi trumpet serenade. Dance connoisseurs will probably complain Pendulum's beats lack a certain finesse, but if you like your dance music a) fast and b) hard then In Silico has all bases covered. --Louis Pattison
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