Album Review: The Prodigy - The Day Is My Enemy - 01.04.2015

Low expectations can sometimes be a good thing, as is the case with The Prodigy’s new album “The Day Is My Enemy”.  Following on from my preview review; The Essex firestarter’s sixth studio album is better than expected, but that isn’t necessarily saying a lot.

Equipped with their usual battery of brutal breakbeats, soaring synths and rock-laced riffs, the title track “The Day Is My Enemy” provides a definite high point in the album. Opening with full ferocity a military-esque breakbeat that sounds like rapid machine gun fire kicks in, interspersed with guest Martina Topley Bird’s restrained vocals, borrowed from Cole Porter’s “All Through The Night” and offset against angry cries of “Get down, get down!”.

“Ibiza” is probably the best song on the album, which features Sleaford Mods cawing out the hook “Eye-beef-uh! Eye-beef-uh!” The Prodigy are not renowned for songs steeped in lyrical significance – refer to “Smack My Bitch Up” – but “Ibiza” offers a little more depth than usual, acting as an ‘anti  DJ anthem’  for The Prodigy, who are making a stand against DJs who pre-mix sets  - Even if the message is “What’s he fucking doing?!” angrily repeated.

Other tracks worth mentioning include; “Beyond The Deathray” for its ambient curveball and “Medicine” for the Middle Eastern inspired synths running throughout.  Unfortunately, the rest of the songs on the 14 track album sound like tired comparisons to predecessors that once basked in the neon glow of the 90’s rave scene.

Liam Howlett’s buzzwords in recent interviews have suggested that the new album will be rammed with “aggression” and “violence”, but unless he meant the album would be based around Keith Flint repetitively roaring song titles on a loop; his statement is sadly inaccurate and unsubstantiated. 

The Prodigy’s new album is a mixed bag, much like 2004’s “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned” It’s disappointing for fans that know what the band are capable of. However in a post-dubstep generation, where Skrillex is king; I’m doubtful if The Prodigy will get another realistic chance to take back the electronic dance crown.

Preview Album Review: The Prodigy - The Day Is My Enemy - 18.03.2015

Electronic music instigators The Prodigy have just unveiled another new single ‘Wall of Death’ from their soon to be released album ‘The Day Is My Enemy’.

The first single from the new album, ‘Nasty’, unfortunately lived up to its name and failed to impress me.  The formulaic trademark disjointed riffs, grinding bass and brutal breaks were all there, but so were Keith Flint’s uninspired vocals based around the repetition of the word ‘Nasty’. It all seemed a little listless and – safe!

The hypocritical thing about ‘Nasty’ is that during a recent interview for Q Magazine, Liam Howlett denounced that “Dance music across all types has become formula-based, It's'here's your drum fill, here's your build.’ all that DJ bollocks and tutorialson YouTube shit.”  He then went on to say “This album is totally organic, pure violent energy." A bold statement that ‘Nasty’ failed to live up to.

With this in mind, I didn’t have high expectations for ‘Wall of Death’, but I tuned in and listened with an open mind. I was pleasantly surprised. The structure of the song isn’t massively different from anything they’ve released before, but I did start to feel that aggression and energy that Howlett had been promising us with the new album.

Whether or not ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ is going to surpass expectations and live up to its hype is open to question; but considering The Prodigy used to be pioneers of electronic music, in the centre of controversy with socio-political albums like ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’ and notorious 90’s anthems from ‘Fat of the Land’, I would say they have their work cut out. I can’t help wondering if they’ve left the release of this album a few years too many.

Live review: Marilyn Manson + Rob Zombie @ London's O2 arena 26.11.12

London’s O2 arena played host to the ‘Twins of evil’ tour last night, featuring two of the biggest names in Rock music.

The first evil twin to take to the stage was Marilyn Manson and it’s fair to say that Manson is one of the most controversial artists to come out of the 90’s. The self-proclaimed ‘Anti-Christ superstar’ sings about religion, politics and drugs amongst other taboo topics. He’s built a formidable reputation for himself based around shock factor, and his elaborate ‘grotesque burlesque’ stage theatrics.

Seeing him at the O2 arena a decade later, it seems Manson has got a little soft and fuzzy around the edges – especially his waist line! What was once shocking, and incited religious protestors outside his gigs or had audience members turning away in disgust now seems slightly passé.  Singing into a microphone rigged to look like a knife, or scattering ‘cocaine’ over the audience at the front before launching (predictably) into ‘The dope show’ and even the allusions to Nazism in ‘Anti-Christ superstar’ failed to slay them in the aisles.

However what we did see what a relatively stripped back, maturing performance, with less of the gruesome and sometimes distracting stage theatrics and more focus on the singing and performance. He still managed to move around the stage with bounds of energy and there were still one or two costume changes with fitting props.

Newer tracks such as ‘Slo-mo-tion’ seemed to get lost towards the back of the audience but the well-known favourites such as ‘mOBSCENE’ and ‘The Beautiful people’ got everyone fired up. I really enjoyed his set, but for such a big venue, and a man whose reputation precedes him; I doubt this performance lived up to everyone’s expectations.

The unmistakeable Rob Zombie completed the evil twin line up and he wasted no time taking charge of the stage, arriving on a huge robotic monstrous beast. It was evident that Zombie wanted to deliver a set straight from the fiery chasm of hell. What Manson’s set lacked in theatrics, Zombie’s more than made up for with fire, pentagrams, half naked women on overhead TV screens and huge robotic beasts – including a giant red devil.

Zombie really was a true showman; he completely immersed himself in each song and delivered all of them with an explosive energy.  Not fearing his audience he asked for everyone to loudly shout for a “Motherfucking zombie party” and even climbed down from the stage to walk around the edges of the audience and let them maul at him in a suitably brain-hungry zombie fashion.

The audience were fully charged all through the set, and although security kept a tight lid on people crowd surfing or behaving too wildly, songs like ‘Super beast’ and ‘More human than human’ still packed a powerful punch which had everybody singing and head-banging along. For me, his encore of ‘Dragula’ was simply breath-taking and seeing several thousand people doing the metal salute of approval is an impressive sight!

Both acts held their own and brought two different performance styles to the evening, in my opinion Zombie stole the show ever so slightly. It was a fantastic gig though and great to see two giants of rock’n’shock on the same bill. If you get the chance to see them, take it.

Eleanor Knight

Live review: BUCKCHERRY w/ Kobra and the Lotus + The Howling @ Northampton Roadmender 23.11.12

Northampton isn’t well known for its rock or even alternative music scene but 3 bands came to The Roadmender to show us; Rock’n’Roll’s not dead!

First on the bill was London quintet The Howling, I was really excited about seeing these guys for the first time because everyone I know is raving about them. As soon as they swaggered on stage it was clear they looked the part; 5 good looking guys with leather jackets, tattoos, and black skinnies all round…

Frontman Blacky certainly had that ‘cocky London attitude’ about him and to be fair it suits the bands new generation punk sound and brash in your face lyrics. Each song they played had fast and furious guitars screaming out big bold punk style riffs alongside thunderous drums and bass lines that added a classic rock vibe to their sound. They interspersed synths and samples throughout which really takes their music in a new direction. ‘Rock N Rolla’ really stood out for me.

I’ll be honest, I felt like I was missing something from these guys. For such hard hitting, energetic songs I thought their actual performance and on stage presence was a little bit lacklustre. This could be that the audience was very thin in numbers, or it could just be my expectations were too high. Either way, I think these guys have potential; I’d like to see them with a bigger crowd to see if that adds that little je ne sais quoi I was missing.

Next on was Canadian based Kobra and the Lotus, I was a little dubious about these guys because I knew they had a female frontwoman and even though we need more women who can rock, it’s seldom that a female voice actually has the power or presence to do just that. However my doubts were quashed when the vibrant Kobra Paige took to the stage, she looked like a Valkyrie warrior and she sang like one too!

The band were technically very tight and although not the most original song structures, big gutsy metal riffs and pounding drums were the order of the day; letting songs simmer just below the surface before they bubbled over and unleashed boiling hot, high energy metal on their audience. ’50 shades of evil’ and ‘Welcome to my funeral’ were both incredibly catchy and started the first of the hair flicking and head banging from the audience. Despite the slightly naff name, I really liked Kobra and the Lotus.

Thankfully the audience had filtered in from the bar by now and there were decent numbers just in time for the headliners Buckcherry to start! From the second heavily tattooed frontman Josh Todd walked on stage you knew he was going to own it; and he did.

The band weren’t scared to interact with the audience, although Josh awkwardly introduced ‘Lit up’ as the first time he tried… cocaine... *waits for audience gasp* (Which made him seem like a naughty 14 year old raiding their dads beer supply) It didn’t deter the audience from singing “I love the cocaine” in raised unison and by the time ‘Crazy bitch’ was played everyone was singing along. Even dashing guitarist Stevie D and formidable drummer Xavier Muriel were throwing picks and sticks out to the audience at regular intervals.

They played songs from their back catalogue which included all the audience favourites such as ‘Lit up’, ‘Sorry’ and ‘Crazy Bitch’. Buckcherry still sound as good and relevant today as they did when they launched in the 90’s, they’re not a band that cares about rules they just want to deliver a night of down-right dirty rock’n’roll songs for their audience, which they did - and more.  

3 very different bands played, but I enjoyed all 3 of them and would definitely go to see them all again. It was an immense night!

Eleanor Knight

Lionsex unleash new single!

Exciting news this week as Milton Keynes’ favourite feline rockers, Lionsex, unleash their brand new single ‘(Not) What You Need’. The single is accompanied by a sleek new video filmed by Duncan Catterall of Clockwork Amoeba.

Following on from the success of their debut album ‘Get It’, released last year on Universal Music, the lions have opted for a stripped back approach on their new album, building themselves a studio in the attic of super secretive lion’s den HQ.

The new album ‘Get Evolved’ was produced by the bands main songwriter and guitarist JJ Lyons then mixed and mastered by Gary Lloyd who also worked on ‘Get It’. The album features 13 tracks of sleazy, wild, untameable rock’n’roll that will demand your full attention.

It’s fair to say the lions haven’t had the easiest of years with the departure of guitarist Jakk Vanity and the comings and goings of different drummers. However nobody said it was gonna be easy, and so after a lot of hard work, time and effort (and I dare say a few catnip cigarettes were involved too) the lions are ready to pounce back onto the music scenes jugular with their claws out and sharpened!

The new single ‘(Not) What You Need’ will be on sale October 22^nd 2012, and will be backed double A-side style with ‘S.O.S’, both songs will feature on their new album ‘Get Evolved’ which will be released next month. If you can’t wait until then why not head over to the Lionsex facebook page where you can hear the new single and get your paws on a FREE download of their cover of Guns N’ Roses classic ‘Shadow of Your Love’.

It’s great to hear these lions roar again, and after hearing the new single, I for one can’t wait to hear the rest of the album and see how the lions have developed. It’s enough to make a kitty purrrr.

Eleanor Knight

                                                 Lionsex - (Not) What You Need