"Showdown" is the fourth

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

and first track from the album ''

In Silico In biology and other experimental sciences, an ''in silico'' experiment is one performed on computer or via computer simulation. The phrase is pseudo-Latin for 'in silicon' (correct la, in silicio), referring to silicon in computer chips. It ...

'' by Australian

electronic rock Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry- ...

band

Pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a wikt:pivot, pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, Mechanical equilibrium, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that ...

. It has been remixed by several artists, including DJ Clipz (who is also Red Light) and Excision. It is also the first single taken from ''In Silico'' not to use the album logo prominently on its cover. The single was originally released through various

online music store A digital music store is a business that sells digital audio files of music recordings over the Internet. Customers gain ownership of a license to use the files, in contrast to a music streaming service, where they listen to recordings withou ...

s on 5 January 2009. It was not available in any physical format until 9 February, when

Warner Music UK Warner Music Group's labels include the following. Flagship labels *Atlantic Records *Elektra Records *Parlophone Records *Warner Records Atlantic Records Group * 1st & 15th Entertainment * All Money In * Artist Partners Group * Asylum Reco ...

released the

12-inch The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

picture disc Picture discs are gramophone record, gramophone (phonograph) records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or colored vinyl. Collectors traditionally reserve the term picture disc for records with graphics ...

of "Showdown". To help promote the single, Pendulum also released a ''

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and ...

'' themed video game which offered players a chance of winning an official framed

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

of ''In Silico''.

(24 December 2008)
Win an ''In Silico'' gold disc
Official website. Retrieved on 7 February 2009.

Background and writing

"Showdown" was originally written and produced for the album ''

'' by

Rob Swire Robert Swire-Thompson (born 5 November 1982) is an Australian musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and DJ, best known as the founder and vocalist of the drum and bass and electronic rock band Pendulum, as well as DJ and co-founder of ...

."Showdown" at APRA search engine

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

(APRA). Retrieved on 6 May 2009.

(12 May 2008). ''

'' (special edition liner notes).

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. (trade name, d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York C ...

, ''2564695276'' Although primarily influenced by

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

, the song contains prominent elements of both early hard rock and

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

, and has even been described as " dance metal" by some critics.Knight, David (12 January 2009)
Pendulum – Showdown [Single]
''altsounds.com''. Retrieved on 9 February 2009. "Showdown" opens with vocals from Swire, before going into a heavy

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompanim ...

which is the main focus of the track. It also makes extensive use of both

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

and acoustic drums to produce large and heavy sounds respectively.Moayeri, Lily (1 July 2008)
Pendulum on In Silico
. ''Remix Magazine''. Retrieved on 9 February 2009.

Critical reception

"Showdown" has received generally positive reviews from music critics. Angry Ape reviewer David Adair described the single as "a snappy and slightly abrasive number that will keep their new found fans amongst the ''

Kerrang ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one ...

'' reading community, very happy". David Knight observed that "you won't hear a better

on a dance track without a great amount of searching", but described the

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es released with the single as "absolutely terrible".

Music video

The music video for "Showdown", directed by Nick Bartleet, was released on MyspaceTV on 12 December 2008 to promote Pendulum's upcoming single. It was originally intended to be Internet-only, but was subsequently A-listed on the television channel

MTV Dance Club MTV, formerly MTV Dance, is a European pay television music channel from Paramount Networks EMEAA that was separated from the UK channel on 27 May 2014. It broadcasts electronica, dance and r'n'b music programming. The channel is widely ava ...

.Knight, David
Pendulum's "Showdown" by Nick Bartleet
. ''Promo News'' (15 January 2009). Retrieved on 7 February 2009. The video draws parallels from

dog fighting Dog fighting is a type of blood sport that turns game and fighting dogs against each other in a physical fight, generally to the death, for the purposes of gambling or entertainment to the spectators. In rural areas, fights are often staged ...

, focusing on a

fight scene Stage combat, fight craft or fight choreography is a specialised technique in theatre designed to create the illusion of physical combat without causing harm to the performers. It is employed in live stage plays as well as operatic and ballet ...

in which the dogs are replaced by two young women, and culminates in the escape of one woman at the end of the video. It also depicts controversial scenes of women being kept in cages and men

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

on the outcome of fights, which contributed to Knight describing the video as "highly problematic". Some scenes of the video have been compared with the movie ''

Fight Club ''Fight Club'' is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the Fight Club (novel), 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays the unnamed T ...

'' by various sources, including Bartleet.

Promotional video game

On 24 December, shortly after the release of their music video, Pendulum presented a ''

'' themed

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

on their website to further promote "Showdown". By scoring more points, players who submitted their details could unlock more of the "Live at the

Brixton Academy Brixton Academy (originally known as the Astoria Variety Cinema, previously known as Carling Academy Brixton, currently named O2 Academy Brixton as part of a sponsorship deal with the O2 brand) is a mid-sized concert venue located in South Wes ...

" version of "Showdown". They also had a chance of winning an official framed

of ''

''. The game was a modified version of ''Space Invaders'', in which the aliens had been replaced with different coloured variants of the ''In Silico'' logo, and the bunkers were replaced with pairs of letters spelling out the band's name. Players had three lives to score as many points as possible, after which their score was logged on a

high score In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in the ...

table. The album version of "Showdown" was played during the game.

Marketing and release

"Showdown" was first released on 5 January 2009 through various

s, including

7digital 7digital Group Plc is a British publicly listed company that offers access to music, tracking and reporting for clients. London-based, 7digital provides end-to-end music services for the fitness, social media, DSPs, and gaming industries with b ...

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econom ...

, and iTunes.Pendulum – Showdown
UK

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

. Retrieved 4 February 2009. Note: Requires iTunes software with UK iTunes Store. Along with the album version and

radio edit In music, a radio edit or radio mix is a modification, typically truncated or censored, intended to make a song more suitable for airplay, whether it be adjusted for length, profanity, subject matter, instrumentation, or form. Radio edits may al ...

of the song, the download bundle included a live recording and several remixes by other artists. The single was later released on a

, containing the album version and Excision remix of "Showdown", on 9 February by

. The song "Showdown" was featured on ''

'' as the opening track. It was the first single from the album not to use the ''In Silico'' logo prominently on its

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of cop ...

, although most of the logo can be seen on a

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. T ...

in the

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper (tabloid), comic book, video game ( box art), music album ( album ...

. Live versions of the song have appeared on ''iTunes Live: London Festival '08'', as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

on " The Other Side", as well as in the single download bundle. It was also featured in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

Disney Interactive Studios Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and Distribution (business), distri ...

' off-road racing video game '' Pure''.Pure to Rock Hard

IGN Music ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

(29 August 2008). Retrieved on 14 February 2009. The track is also featured in the first trailer for ''

Forza Motorsport 3 ''Forza Motorsport 3'' is a 2009 racing video game developed for Xbox 360 by Turn 10 Studios. It is the sequel to ''Forza Motorsport 2'' and the third installment in the '' Forza'' series. The game includes more than 400 customizable cars (more ...

'', on the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

as well as in the game itself during races, and '' CSI: NY'' episode "Green Piece". The song was featured for available in the soundtrack of '' Marvel's the Punisher: War Zone''.

Track listings

These are the major formats and associated track listings of single releases of "Showdown", written and produced by

. Music download
#"Showdown" – 5:27 #"Showdown" – 3:22 #"Showdown" – 4:52 #"Showdown" – 4:47 #"Showdown" – 5:09 #"Showdown" – 7:38 12-inch picture disc vinyl
#"Showdown" – 5:27 #"Showdown" – 4:47

Personnel

"Showdown" is credited to: Pendulum *

– writer, producer, vocals, mixing *

Gareth McGrillen Pendulum is an Australian electronic rock band founded in 2002. Pendulum originally formed in the city of Perth, Western Australia, by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen and Paul "El Hornet" Harding. The band was later expanded to include members Ben ...

–

production assistant A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget ...

, bass guitar *

Peredur ap Gwynedd Pendulum is an Australian electronic rock band founded in 2002. Pendulum originally formed in the city of Perth, Western Australia, by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen and Paul "El Hornet" Harding. The band was later expanded to include members Ben ...

– guitar *

Paul Kodish Paul Kodish is a professional drummer raised in Willesden, London. Kodish has performed with a variety of different artists, including the hip hop act Whodini in 1986, and the drum and bass group Bad Company. He was also one of two drummers for ...

– acoustic drums Other contributors *Simon Askew – mixing *John Davis – mastering *Paul West –

logo design A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

* Hugh Pescod (DJ Clipz / Red Light) – remix * Excision – remix

Video personnel

The music video for "Showdown" is credited to: *Nick Bartleet –

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, ...

*Phoebe Lloyd – producer *Marko Fuchs – assistant director *Eric Maddison –

director of photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

*Zara Phythian – actor, lead martial artist *Helen Bailey – actor, martial artist *John Moule – video commissioner

Release history

References

External links

"Showdown"
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

"Showdown"
at

MusicBrainz MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for so ...

"Showdown"
at rolldabeats {{Good article 2009 singles Songs written by Rob Swire Pendulum (drum and bass band) songs Obscenity controversies in music