Here's a good 'un

One criticism could be that there really is no let-up to the aural onslaught

http://www.musicomh.com/albums/prodigy-3_0209.htm

It’s the thing with the artists one loves: you never know. There is, and that often seems to be the sad case these days, disappointment. One after another. Take Linkin Park for example. Or Metallica. Or, as an extreme case of dropping down to a joke-level, Nine Inch Nails. Then there are these, I call survivors. Like Dr. Dre, proving it with the current release ‘Detox’. Even some of my all time favourites, like Cypress Hill or Depeche Mode are not doing much else than just survive. So how about the rest then? Slipknot. Or Tool. Or The Prodigy...

The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die [2009]

what’s good?
After the last time studio absence of the mental asylum’s creme de la creme, Keith Flint and Maxim Reality reunite with Liam Howlett. Taking guests like Nirvana’s legend Dave Grohl on drums for the riot-inducing ‘Run with the Wolves’ on board, they mean serious business this time around. They, once again, deliver insanity, madness, viciousness and anarchy to what already is much more punk than electro in the hands of the electronica’s sampling and mixing virtuoso par excellence, Mr. Howlett. This guy is, and I’m sorry as there is no other way of saying this, nothing a tiniest bit less than a motherfucking GENIUS. To a huge similarity with Slipknot’s ‘All Hope Is Gone’, he simply takes the entire up-to-date discography of the band, shoves it down a jumbo jet engine and collects the compound at the exhaust for a precise laboratory analysis and re-invention. The results are quite simply cataclysmic. The beats are earth-shaking, the whole thing has the power of lightning hitting your ears and frying your brain alive. Unlike Slipknot’s metioned work, there aren’t any attempts to re-build on a downtempo foundation, the album has as much romanticism as a tactical nuclear warhead being carried to a distant coral-surrounded holiday resort on an otherwise deserted island (yeah, that’s Crysis talking! :D). If this is already not the winner of at least two of-the-year awards, than I’m jumping up and down looking forward to what will be!

what’s bad?
I just can’t seem to get my head around the lack of album’s initial firepower the title track suffers from. It’s not that I would have got bored of it already, I just don’t like it (that much). Can you believe that?

bombtracks:

3. ‘Thunder’
I think that ‘Thunder’ is what the album should have been entitled. Enough said.

2. ‘Take Me to the Hospital’
The Howlett mixing madness as we know it and love it. This is probably where the band’s roots’ influence is the strongest. But again, it’s not serving you “the quality of when we were once good”, it’s a “we’re still here and we’re not afraid to kick arse harder than ever” sort of thing.

1. ‘Omen’
Although the theme may ring an ‘Out of Space’ bell here and there, this is what defines the album: The Prodigy re-united, re-created and a few hundred-strong over-voltaged. Track of the year until further notice.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/15/invaders-must-die-prodigy

"Invaders Must Die" is The Prodigy's fifth studio album and the first for the last five years. A month ago there was a leak of a demo version of the album, but either it was full of fake tracks or the demos were really very old as the original songs included in the official tracklist distinctively variate. Anyways "Invaders Must Die" is a fact and marks the big return of one of the most important names in the electronic scene. They released the single "Invaders Must Die" on 4th November as a big teaser to the upcoming studio release. Honestly I had no idea what to expect, but had my hopes that it will sound at least a bit better than "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned", which to me was their weakest album. I wish it had stayed their least appealing album, but "Invaders Must Die" manages to be with an extra idea more annoying. Not that the album is lame to the fullest, but a release like this is more suitable to someone who has just recorded his debut and is about to figure out his stylistic niche.

For some time I used to believe that The Prodigy has ceased to exist and was really surprised to hear they were back in the studio. Is it that they've changed their label or they are out of ideas, but tracks like "Warriors Dance" and "Run With The Wolves" reminded me of their debut "Experience". It will remain a mystery to me the inclusion of the reprise of "Omen"...absolutely pointless. The album could do perfectly without "Stand Up" and "Piranha", which are less than mediocre. There is no drama when picking up the best songs from "Invaders Must Die", they are too easy to be spotted and the rest is more of a filler than actual new material. The Prodigy nowadays are just no match to what they used to be in the 90s: either their time has irrevocably passed or Liam Howlett and company need urgent lessons on contemporary dance music. The Prodigy may be one of the biggest name in the electronic scene, but this doesn't mean that their music should be praised just for the sake of the good old times and glory. Despite the big name that stays behind "Invaders Must Die", this album easily falls in the category of albums that the world could perfectly do without. If the invaders must die the band has to come with better ideas to kill them all!

Songs to hear: "Invaders Must Die", "Omen", "Thunder", "Take Me to the Hospital" and "World's On Fire"

When the Prodigy appeared on SPIN's September 1997 cover, the U.K. group's third album, The Fat of the Land, had been tagged as electronica's de facto reinvention of rock'n'roll. But it also marked the Prodigy's reinvention from rebellious rave icons to a theatrical rap-rock troupe performing punky hit "Firestarter" with no-hawked punchinello Keith Flint front and center. Madonna anointed it her favorite "workout music." talk about death knells.

But after a decade-plus of diminishing returns—2004's flailing Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned ditched Flint and MC Maxim reality in an ill-fated gambit -- Invaders Must Die is a stirringly workmanlike, if retro, blast of founder/producer Liam Howlett's anthemic breakbeat spazz. The deft drum programming and piercing synths of "Omen" (with Flint and Maxim back on mic) create the sort of gut-punching delirium that Justice could pull off if they weren't too busy smoking Gauloises by the infinity pool, while "Warrior's Dance" -- which irreverently bites True Faith's house classic "Take Me Away" -- is a restless, junglist pileup that could've changed the world for several strobing minutes in 1991. "World's on Fire" recasts "Firestarter" with tingly breakdowns instead of bratty prattle.

There's even a nod to their aging rave cohort -- the horn-sampling sunrise refrain of closer "Stand Up" emerges as Howlett's "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)." Sleep tight, mate, you've earned it.