And it is here to conquer you.

Pendulum, an innovative band that has taken what is called "drum-and-bass" dance music to new heights, has already conquered Japan, Europe and its homeland of Australia.

In 2005, the quintet released its debut album, "Hold Your Colour," which became one of the biggest-selling drum-and-bass releases of all time. The album helped revive a fierce style of music from the 1980s underground club scene where the fuzzy bass guitar leads the melody and the drum machines pulsate up to 180 beats per minute.

When its second album, "In Silico," was released in May, the band showed that it had evolved drum-and-bass into something new, with the addition of aggressive guitars and traditional drums versus drum machines.

The album has ruled the charts in the United Kingdom since its launch, and now Pendulum is on its first tour of America, hitting Murray on Oct. 11.

The tour launched in Boston to a sold-out crowd, with The Boston Herald remarking, "The new Pendulum isn't a knob-twirling dance music act. . . . It rocks. And hard."

In interviews, Rob Swire, lead singer and producer, and Gareth McGrillen, bass and DJ, offered insights into the band's music.

What did you want to do with the second album that you felt was perhaps missing in the first album?

McGrillen: We were influenced from music outside of drum-and-bass at the time, and in retrospect those influences did filter through but . . . it wasn't our intention. The second LP, however, is us intentionally letting our influences from other genres of music affect the songs. We were listening to a lot of surf rock and metal and old bluesy rock like Led Zeppelin.

Why turn to guitars to complement your sound?

Swire: The kind of electronic music we're interested in has almost always been the most aggressive and energetic. . . . Guitars are typically aggressive-sounding and complement the sound well. It's not that . . . we were bored of synths, and the conventional dance music approach, . . . because that's still the core of the music and probably always will be.

What do you want listeners to get out of listening to your album, or going to your shows?

Swire: We want people to get whatever kind of escape music gives them - and more.

McGrillen: As long as it doesn't make them drive their cars dangerously fast, which I've heard some say it does. We just want people to go nuts. We feed off that and play better.

While your sound has shifted, what attracted you, early on, to the "drum-and-bass" sound?

Swire: We've always loved electronic music, but at the time were quite angst-y teenagers and loved aggressive dark music, like metal and rock. We missed the early days of drum-and-bass as it wasn't really appealing to us, but drum-and-bass took on a new dark and sinister form around 2001. We caught up with it around a year after that. I think it had the same energy to what we liked about rock and metal.

Have people given you advice about how to conquer America?

Swire: It's just plain and simple hard work to break America, and at the moment we're really up for it. Of course, there have been other bands out there who've had a member marry a supermodel, or come out and said something controversial about a president. But even if that gets you momentary fame, it's never long-lasting if you don't have the music to back it up.

David Burger writes about popular music. Contact him at dburger@sltrib.com or 801-257-8620.