Release Date: 22 August 2025
Song Count: 16
Rating: 9.2/10
Description:
To wrap up this absolute roller-coaster of a year that is - soon "was" - 2025, here is one final album from the year by a band that has received a brief mention on a review earlier this month for helping popularise another predating collective making electronic music (The Prodigy), Pendulum. Known as a force who has mastered the art of mixing together drum & bass and hard rock into one, the Perth-based band had previously been on a major hiatus that lasted several years and, even after their reformation, primarily stuck to releasing singles and EPs up until this August, refraining from making another album following their most commercially successfully one, Immersion, for 15 entire years. In this regard, Inertia marks an important stepping stone for Pendulum's entire career and existence in the music scene as their - at least, promised - symbolic grand return to full form.
If there is one adjective to describe the half-rock half-electronic sound of Pendulum, it's likely something along the lines of "aggressive" - their music is loud, barging, hyper, and not afraid of filling all of one's senses and getting in one's face, and that is precisely the appeal in what they make and bring to the table. This latest collection of tracks fits right up the alley of their usual output and then some, bringing in not only various melodies as well as playing around with the dials when it comes to levels of energies and different rhythms, but also uniquely incorporating additional names and talents from all corners of the music world by the likes of Hybrid Minds, WARGASM, Bullet For My Valentine, AWOLNATION, Joey Valence & Brae (which, as a newly-recruited fan of the hip-hop duo, makes the fact that their collaborative song "Napalm" even exists just short of a literal fever dream) and Scarlxrd.
This consistent stream of high-tempo, high-energy music that scratches the brain in just the right way is exactly what one could ask for from a Pendulum album, and this one more than delivers on that front, showcasing that the 15-year wait for a fourth album was not simply just the band disappearing, but instead going through an internal transformation and lengthily charging up to be able to swing back at full force like this. The way the songs manage to also avoid inducing the all too commonly found effect of tiring the listener with constant and insufficiently interrupted barge of sonical volume and power is another noteworthy feature that leads to the entire listen striking and staying at a sweet pot without souring away after some amount of time, a phenomenon that albums like these can very easily slip into if not careful with deciding when in the work to dial things back and when to go all in.
The successful variety in beats and things to draw one in whilst simultaneously sticking to the signature Electronic Rock / "Drum, Bass & Rock" style in a consistent and reliable way is frankly near mind-boggling with how well it works out. Even excluding proper highlight songs like "Mercy Killing", "Napalm", "Driver" and "Colourfast", there is not a single track that falls short in any way on the record, a feat rarely achieved within an album, especially one containing as many as 16 tracks in it as Inertia does. I am very glad that, in spite of 2025 being an overall confusing year full of its highs and lows, the record to wrap up the year on ended up making the albumthon experience so far conclude on a high note. This is an album that has most certainly cemented itself as an instant classic in my collection right away, and for that, it deserves the highest of praise and an applause if I could give one in text-only form.
Happy New Year to all! (and don't worry, the daily album journey most certainly doesn't end here...)