The Prodigy

While I'm sure nine out of ten doctors most certainly do not recommend dosing yourself up on enough X to kill a horse and then jumping feet first into a strobe-light enhanced slam dance, I can almost guarantee that odd man out is blissfully spinning his copy of Invaders Must Die while writing out this prescription for disaster. No, that's not to say that for their fifth time out, England's The Prodigy has turned an eye toward the neo-metalcore bandwagon, but the pure decibel-driven intensity and blood-pumping grooves heard throughout this album rivals that of many of the current crop of psuedo-heavies.

With heavy guitars and even heavier synths, Invaders Must Die bursts through the door like a cyber-hulk ready to dance. Dynamic swells and pulsating breakdowns allow for breathing room, but by and large the party never ebbs with club anthems "Omen" and "Colours" (featuring Brit singer/songwriter Amanda Ghost) throbbing in your eardrums. Dave Grohl reclaims his drum throne on the tribally charged "Run With The Wolves" and album closer "Stand Up." With big, bright beats and driving beats, the latter track makes for a great send-off song, whatever the occasion.

It’s no secret that The Prodigy are true innovators of their craft and that they have left their fingerprints on as many genres as they have been influenced by themselves. What makes this act so noteworthy is their ability to fill their blender with as much variety as possible, yet still maintain a distinctly defined sound. Firing on all cylinders, Invaders Must Die is the common thread between New Order and the Rob Zombie remixes.

—Ryan Ogle
03.23.09

Twenty years after England's Summer of Love, rave had made a comeback -- at least in indie circles -- and Liam Howlett's Prodigy, the only original rave group still going (anyone remember Altern-8?), could hardly have done worse than jump aboard. Invaders Must Die is a curious nu-rave record, as though the sound of 1991 (such as their Top Ten hit "Charly") has been filtered through the sound of 1996 (such as their number one, "Firestarter") to emerge as, simply, uptempo dance music with extroverted beats and grimy basslines. If that sounds basically like your average electronica record circa the turn of the millennium (albeit produced by one of its greatest heroes), then you're a long way towards understanding what this nu-rave record from the Prodigy sounds like. Add a few period-appropriate cues -- unfiltered synth or keyboard runs, ring-the-alarm effects, samples of divas or ragga chatters (sped-up and slowed-down, respectively) -- and you get a strange album indeed. The single "Omen" is a good example, while the other two tracks with the most rave signals are "Take Me to the Hospital" and "Warrior's Dance," which both sound like follow-ups to "Charly" or "Out of Space" filtered through the darkside strains of latter-day hardcore techno (aka 4Hero's "Mr. Kirk's Nightmare"). And as usual with the Prodigy -- going back to Music for the Jilted Generation -- there's plenty of polemics and struggle, most of it delivered in sloganeering fashion by Keith Flint and Maxim (who are both back in the fold after being absent from the previous Prodigy record, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned). ~ John Bush, All Music Guide