Still screaming

Pearl Jam's 12th album proves the senior statesmen have what it takes after 33 years. 

- GRAHAM REID

In rock culture where bands through business frustrations, "musical differences", fragile egos or competing personalities - implode or explode with predictable frequency, some remain resistant to the chaos.

You have to admire the tenacity of U2, Radiohead, Blur, The Bats and others for enduring against the odds.

And Pearl Jam who - 33 years after their debut album Ten and with a remarkably stable line-up-survived the lamentable attrition of overdoses and suicides which afflicted Seattle's grunge scene: Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone, Layne Staley (Alice in Chains), Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age).

Pearl Jam - average age 59 - may be senior statesmen but reach their 12th studio album Dark Matter sounding impressively muscular and match-fit.