Pendulum is one of my favourite artists of all time, and they are masters of their genre. With songs such as ‘Vault’, ‘Still Grey’, ‘Another Planet’, ‘Slam’, ‘Hold Your Colour’ and so forth, they have been rocking genres from drum and bass to breaks, electronic rock and more. With their new album, ‘Immersion’, they’re expanding into new genres, like dubstep and melodic death metal (believe it or not), and they’re doing it with perfection.

When Pendulum released their previous album, ‘In Silico‘, I couldn’t help myself but feel disappointed. Sure, they had some good songs (‘Propane Nightmares’, ‘Different’, ‘Granite’ for example), but overall it was completely lacking compared to their magnum opus ‘Hold Your Colour‘, which I also concider to be the best drum and bass album to be released in the history of music. They were experimenting way too much for my taste, and the whole album sounded like it had been “americanized” (if there are any americans is reading this, don’t take it personal).

One cannot deny, however, that what was started on ‘In Silico’ has been taken to newer hights on ‘Immersion’, and the experimenting and playing around with different styles has turned out good for them.

Anyway, onto the review of the actual album. I’ll review each song individually, and try to point out both the positive and the negative (if any). I know I’m most likely biased, but bear with me.

1. Genesis

Finally, a proper opening again. I found myself missing the prelude on ‘Hold Your Colour’ when ‘In Silico’ was released. It’s not as good as ‘Prelude’, but it’s absolutely a good opening to the album, with a bit of 8-bit sounds mixed in with the rest.

2. Salt In The Wounds

As started on ‘Hold Your Colour’, and continued on ‘In Silico’, ‘Salt In The Wounds’ is this album’s commercial floorshaker. Ever since ‘Slam’ was released, Pendulum have steadily been releasing new songs in the same vein. Neither ‘Blood Sugar’ nor ‘Showdown’ managed to reach the commercial success of ‘Slam’, but ‘Salt In The Wounds’ is as close as you get. It’s not as powerful, nor does it have the epic intro that ‘Slam’ has, but it’s still very good. If I were to point out anything, I’d say that this track is a bit on the long side, spanning over almost 7 minutes, and it gets a bit repetetive. Also, just because ‘Slam’ became really popular, there’s no need to use the same beat in several songs (most of the songs I mentioned above). The breakdown at about 3:40 brings it back up though.

3. Watercolour

The first single released from the album, and I’d call that a good choice. Absolutely one of the more mainstream songs on the album, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. It’s a bit like ‘Hold Your Colour’ on the album of the same name, with a chill vocal intro and a massive takeoff. This will be played to death on radios this summer, and that’s not a bad thing.

4. Set Me On Fire

Pendulum’s first real take on dubstep, and they’re doing it with excellence. I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of dubstep, but from the few songs I’ve heard by other artists, this is still far superior. A very interesting track.

5. Crush

A solid mix of drum and bass and rock, ‘Crush’ is another great, if a bit mainstream track. Rob Swire has improved his vocal talent greatly, which can be noticed on this track (and on the rest of the album, in fact).  The melody is catchy, the beat is great; all in all, another song that’s surely going to be a radio favourite. It doesn’t stand as much out as other tracks on this album, so it might be overlooked by some, which is a shame.

6. Under The Waves

A bit like ‘Crush’, this is also a very radio friendly track. It’s a bit more laid back though, almost like a version of ‘Midnight Runner’ with vocals. Nothing very special about it, another song that might be overlooked compared to the heavier hitters on the album.

7. Immunize (featuring Liam Howlett from The Prodigy)

This is one of those heavy hitters I was mentioning. Pendulum and Liam Howlett have done a great job on this, mashing together the best from both Pendulum and The Prodigy, a perfect mix of drum and bass and electronic dance music. I’m quite sure this is going to rock some dancefloors during the months to come.

8. The Island Part 1 (Dawn)

This song, and it’s next part, shows how diverse Pendulum’s sound has become. This is something new for them, but I find myself loving this more and more with each listen. A very laid back electronic dance song, with catchy melodies and very good vocals. In my opinion, this is the track that shows how much Rob Swire’s voice has evolved, and what a good move it was for Pendulum to include more singing in some of their tracks. One of my favourites.

9. The Island Part 2 (Dusk)

I have no idea what the hell this is, but it’s awesome. Again, something Pendulum has never done before, but that’s not even noticable. This very much stands out compared to the rest of the album (with one exception, I’m getting to that). This is like the drugged up big brother to ‘The Island Part 1′, and musically the exact opposite aswell. It sounds like if you were to mix breaks/big beats with LSD. It’s a love/hate track though, and I suspect that a lot of hardcore drum and bass fans will turn away from this.

10. Comprachicos

Ending after 2 minutes and 48 seconds, this is the shortest track on the album, which is a shame. It’s a very aggressive drum and bass/jungle track, more in the veins of’ Masochist’ or ‘Axle Grinder’. In this case, the vocals feel unnecessary, and I think the track would’ve been a lot better without them. Also, it includes a  bit too much of the rock influence found on ‘In Silico’ in my opinion. From what I heard on the previews, I had greater expectations for this song, so I’m disappointed that it turned out the way it did. Still, it’s a good song, and should be checked out.

11. The Vulture

I was surprised to find that this was not the collaboration track they had with Liam, but in fact the work of their very own MC, Ben Mount. It sounds very influenced by older works of The Prodigy, mixed in with Pendulum’s take on breaks/big beats  (imagine ‘Fasten Your Seatbelt’ with Keith Flint). Yet another dancefloor hit.

12. Witchcraft

Also one of my favourite tracks, and is confirmed to be the second single off the album, ‘Witchcraft’ is much in the veins of ‘Watercolour’. It actually sounds like a less boring ‘Propane Nightmares’ (hope I didn’t step on any toes here, yikes.). Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed ‘Propane Nightmares’ as much as the next guy, or the melody anyway. However, I felt the song lacked power, which ‘Witchcraft’ absolutely has. This song is also a bit better, and will enjoy a solid amount of radio play. As with ‘Watercolour’ though, this song feels a bit short.

13. Self Versus Self (featuring In Flames)

This is the other song that stands out from the album, and that’s no surprise. Pairing up with In Flames, the Swedish pioneers of Melodic Death Metal might be one of the most risky moves Pendulum has ever done. I can assure you, however, that this is perfectly executed. As a huge fan of melodic death metal, I had high expectations for this song, and it turned out that it’s my favourite track from ‘Immersion’. One could never imagine that hearing Rob Swire’s melodic singing with the shouting from Anders Fridén to be a good match, but, pardon my french, it’s fucking great. Another love/hate track, that will probably be hated by both the metal scene and the drum and bass scene. My advice: don’t be close-minded; give this track a chance. Unless you absolutely despise In Flames, this song is going to be stuck in your head for weeks, I assure you. But, to be fair, if this track belongs in this album or an album by In Flames is debatable, as it breaks the flow of the album.

14. The Fountain (featuring Steven Wilson)

The third and final collaboration on this album, ‘The Fountain’ sounds like it could be the third single off of the album. This time, Pendulum is working with Steven Wilson, the vocalist and guitarist of Porcupine Tree. A very relaxing and refreshing song, and we get to enjoy a different vocal talent. A very enjoyable song, and another of my favourites.

15. Encoder

‘Immersion’ ends with a very relaxing tune. It’s almost like a more ambient version of ‘The Tempest’. There’s not really much to mention with this track; it’s just a good ending to a great album.

And there we have it. The entirety of ‘Immersion’ reviewed. The ride has been great. In fact, this is one of the best albums to be released in a while, and the best drum and bass/electronica album to be released since “Hold Your Colour”. If you enjoyed the previous releases of Pendulum, I’d advice you to buy “Immersion” right now.

9/10

It seems Blizzard is finally rolling out those fixes for the server capacity we were told about during BlizzCon last week. For now they’ll mostly focus on the high populated realms, but I guess as the weeks pass they will roll the fix out on additional realms. Read the full statement from Blizzard below.

“Realm News

Weekly Maintenance, 26/08
This Wednesday there will be a scheduled maintenance. Please note that all European realms will be offline from 03:00 until 11:00, Paris time (CEST).

The below realms will have an extended maintenance to address instance capacity. These realms will be offline from 01:00 to 15:00 on Wednesday, and additionally from 03:00 to 07:00 on Thursday.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Aerie Peak
Boulderfist
Chamber of Aspects
Eonar
Frostmane
Grim Batol
Jaedenar
Kazzak
Kilrogg
Outland
Ravenholdt
Saurfang
Tarren Mill
Vek’nilash
Wildhammer”

Ever since Windows 7 was released, there’s been a steady flow of users coming to the ThinkPad forums, asking about how one can get the on-screen display to work again on Windows 7. Even I have been looking around for the answer, but so far, no working solution has surfaced. Today however, I managed to find the answer to our problems, and I’m surprised I didn’t do this earlier.

What you need for this to work, is the beta versions of the Hotkey driver, and the Lenovo System Interface Driver. The Hotkey features driver can be found here, and the Lenovo System Interface Driver can be found here.

After both those are downloaded, you should unpack them, and run the Setup files. After you’ve installed both programs, do a reboot. The on-screen volume and brightness displays should now work.

Note: Some users might need the Power Manager driver. I didn’t, but I suspect others do. In any case, that one can be found here.

Blizzard have been known for surprising us with content before, that’s nothing new. This though, is probably the most surprising update and also one of the ones I welcome the most.

As a part of World of Warcraft’s 5 year anniversary, Blizzard decided to bring back Onyxia for the next content patch, 3.2.2. And not only is she a bit revamped, she has new loot, a new drop mount, and the anniversary gives you a special companion pet just for logging in. Look below for the full statement by Zarhym.

“She has lurked in her lair and done battle with the many brave adventurers who travelled to that familiar location over the years. Now, in honor of the World of Warcraft 5-year anniversary, the dreaded brood mother Onyxia is being revamped to make a return to the forefront of Azeroth, as part of our big plans for the upcoming 3.2.2 content patch.

This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called an Onyxia Broodling. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again.

Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet.

We’re very excited to bring this classic encounter back to provide a fun new experience for both new and veteran players. Further details will be available in the near future, and we will be setting up the Public Test Realms soon to help test out this fight along with all the new content we have planned for the patch. Keep an eye on the forums for updates!”

This is some of the best news I’ve had in a while, and as an old school player (since day one actually), I’m quite thankful they brought back such a nostalgic encounter. I wonder what they’re adding to the fight. All I know is, we are going to need more dots.

The new World of Warcraft patch, “Call of the Crusade“, has now gone live and is availible for download.

A lot of awesome stuff is being added this patch, including (but not limited to) :

• New mount system, with mounts starting at level 20.
• New 10- and 25-person raiding dungeon, Call of the Crusader.
• A new 5-person dungeon, Trial of the Crusader, with only epic drops.
• Epic gems, which you can get from several places.
• Ravasaur trainers! Finally, after all these years.
• A completely new battleground, Isle of Conquest, which is a 40vs40 battleground.
• Tier 9 armor sets which now have Horde- and Alliance-unique looks.
• A new PvP season, with a new system for obtaining the best items.

As you can see, a lot of goodness is being added.
For a complete list of goodies, head over to MMO-Champion to get the patch notes and newest blue posts.

The new 5-person dungeon Blizzard is introducing in Patch 3.2 has now been opened for testing on the Public Test Realms. And so far, the loot tables for the normal and heroic versions of the instance is looking great!

The reason? In contrast to other 5-person instances, this one is only dropping epics! The normal version drops iLevel 200 items, and the heroic version is dropping iLevel 213 items. Another step towards making World of Warcraft even more casual friendly, but then again, it might be nice to be able to gear up all of your alts.

If you are interested in checking out the loot tables, head on over to MMO-Champion for updates.

As if WotLK wasn’t easy enough. Now they’re making a “huge” change to flying in the next major content patch, allowing any character you have that is level 68 or above to fly in Northrend. For a price, of course.

Zarhym: (Source)
“Just to confirm, Tome of Cold Weather Flight is actually a new heirloom item planned to go into patch 3.2. At level 80 players can buy this heirloom item from the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran for 1,000 gold and send it to an alt of the same realm, faction and account. The tome can be used to learn Cold Weather Flying at level 68, consuming the tome in the process.

Please note this feature is not yet in the newest version of the public test realm patch notes updated today. The item and its functionality are subject to change during the testing process.”

This is a change I don’t mind much though, since I hate leveling in Northrend. This will be a welcome change to speed the last 10 levels up.

There has been word from the court that a decision has been made in the nine-day trial against The Pirate Bay, one of the larger BitTorrent networks in the world.

The four defendants were accused of “assisting in making copyright content available”, and were all found guilty. The sentence? One year each in prison, and fines totaling US $3,620,000.

The court had said that the four were aware that illegal distribution of copyrighted material were going on on their website. The site will however run as normal, and the defendants plan to appeal.