“Darker, heavier”: The Prodigy’s new album plans

As the Northern Hemisphere warms up for its festival season, enduring dance icons The Prodigy are planning a rollicking summer. In June, the band will share the stage with grizzled rock insitutions Metallica and Black Sabbath at the Download festival, before continuing on to the insane-looking Spanish desert marathon Monegros and Germany’s Sonne Mond Sterne to name just a few. In September, they’ll cap it all off with their own Warrior’s Dance Festival in Serbia alongside, yep, Skrillex.

All these festivals, though, are taking second priority to The Prodigy’s sixth studio album, which Liam Howlett told NME in this month’s issue is tentatively titled How To Steal A Jet Fighter. The band has been at work on the record since 2010, and earlier assured fans that they “won’t go near” dubstep this time. The NME interview also saw Howlett touching on the feel of the follow-up to Invaders Must Die.

“We’re really excited about it,” he said. “The last record was…kind of a party album, I guess. We were all happy to be back together again. But the best tunes on that albums are the ones that have less of that. It’s definitely going heavier, darker. The title we’re working with is How To Steal A Jet Fighter. But that might change. Who knows?”

As for the rock-worshipping hordes at Download, The Prodigy’s leader isn’t fazed about giving them a rattling show. “The fans, they’re not there to fuck about. People are into loud, uncompromising shit.”