Listen to lairy new Pendulum single Napalm, featuring Joey Valance & Brae

Pendulum, and Joey Valance and Bray — (Image credit: Pendulum: Andrew Cotterill / Joey Valance & Bray: Connor Phillips)

Aussie drum 'n' bass heavyweights Pendulum have released a brand new single ahead of their appearance at the Reading and Leeds festivals this coming weekend, and it packs a special appearance from one of hip hop's most entertaining and exciting young acts. The gritty, down-and-dirty d'n'b track, titled Napalm, sees Pendulum team up with Joey Valance & Brae, the American rap duo whose riotously fun sophomore album No Hands landed earlier this year to critical acclaim.

“As soon as I heard their [2022] single Punk Tactics, I knew we had to work together on a heavy DnB track," says Pendulum frontman Rob Swire. "This is such a legendary collab for us," add Joey Valance & Brae in a statement. "We’ve both been fans of Pendulum and drum and bass in general for so long, so it’s crazy to finally do a track together.”

Speaking to NME about the heavier nature of Napalm, Swire claims: “I want to take it much heavier. I know drum ‘n’ bass is having a moment again and we keep getting every Tom, Dick and Harry across our entire work team being like, ‘You guys have to get in on this and start making some DnB that fits in Headache’s set’, but it’s just the last thing I want to fucking do. I feel most comfortable when we’re in between worlds. As soon as it goes too metal or too DnB, then I start to feel weird about it. The middle of that ground is the perfect zone for us. I want to take it much heavier if we can.”

Listen to the new single below. Pendulum play Leeds Festival's main stage this Friday (August 23) and Reading's man stage on Sunday (August 25).

Speaking to Louder about his longtime love of EDM earlier this year, Joey Valance explained: "I basically only listened to electronic music until I was, like, 20, like Skrillex and Knife Party and Pendulum and like all this, dubstep and stuff. I'm so into rave music and so I grew up with hip hop influence and listened to that as well."

“Joey was making a lot of EDM at the time when we first met," Brae confirmed, "and I was kind of into that stuff too, so we had a similarity there."

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Merlin was promoted to Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has written for Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.