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NBHAP Rating: 2,6/5
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[one_half last=”yes”]THE PRODIGY
The Day Is My Enemy
Release-Date: 30.03.2015
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Tracklist:
01. The Day is My Enemy
02. Nasty
03. Rebel Radio
04. Ibiza feat. Sleaford Mods
05. Destroy
06. Wild Frontier
07. Rok-Weiler
08. Beyond the Deathray
09. Rhythm Bomb feat. Flux Pavilion
10. Roadblox
11. Get Your Fight On
12. Medicine
13. Invisible Sun
14. Wall Of Death
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The past’s glory in the back
It’s a cliché to start with such a phrase but we’ll do it anyway: THE PRODIGY are a phenomenon of its own. And they are still there, two decades after Firestarter, still dragging from the success of those glory days in the mid 1990s when their electrifying fusion of big beat, rave and punk rock set the world on fire and made them the coolest band of the planet for at least one year. Ever since their groundbreaking 1997 album The Fat Of The Land mastermind Liam Howlett pops out every few years with a new incarnation of the band, sometimes without MC’s Maxim Reality and Keith Flint (like on the flopped 2004 record Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned) and sometimes with them. Still, the already mentioned 2004 record might have marked a wake-up call for Howlett who was trying to step out of the shadow of the 90s but ultimately wasn’t rewarded with positive feedback for it. 2009’s Invaders Must Die was a step back to the well-known PRODIGY formula and felt a bit like the confession of a defeat. The band decided to settle in its own past whether you like it or now.
Don’t expect the unexpected
Six more years have past and now The Day Is My Enemy continues where its predecessor left us. The message is unmistakable: Even 25 years after their founding THE PRODIGY are still loud, wild and heavy and far from retiring. Howlett promised an even harder album prior to the release. The album became a statement of strength. The title-track opens The Day Is My Enemy with heavy tribal drums as if the band wants to summon its followers for another rave ritual. The heaviness is still alive although the record’s first single Nasty became a predictable cut and dried PRODIGY single. Same goes for plenty of tunes on the record. Wild Frontier, Rebel Radio and Rok-Weiler are as PRODIGY as a PRODIGY track can be. The few exceptions are nice anyway. Ibiza, a collaboration with Britain’s new punk heroes SLEAFORD MODS is pure madness in a very positive way. The almost drum’n’bass like Roadblox as well. Or the surprisingly paced-down Invisible Sun. But these are the exceptions to the rule and a bit more fresh blood would have been nice.
Timing is everything
But here’s the key point of the whole PRODIGY phenomenon. The band might not be interested in that fresh blood after all. From the pumping start to the furious closer Wall of Death Howlett and his gang keep the status quo alive. And you can’t really blame them. They were pioneers, found their unique formula and stick to it. They are a great live band even if most of the audience won’t really care about the new stuff this festival season. And sometimes that sound works and sometimes not. Invaders Must Die happened right in time for the nu-rave revival and the band returned just in time for the revival of its own musical genre (a bit like what happened to MORRISSEY and the ‘indie’ wave in 2004, right?). But things have changed in the past six years and although The Day Is My Enemy is loud, furious and kicks butt it also feels strangely pretentious, forced and a bit like an excuse for the band to hit the road again. It’s not really but if you could choose between this and The Fat Of The Land we might already know your answer. And Liam Howlett is well aware of that fact.
Same loud procedure as always: THE PRODIGY’s ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ is a predictable confirmation of the band’s status quo; nothing more and nothing less.
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