Since the release of their debut album ‘Solitude And Savagery’ in 2018 the band have gone on to perform at the likes of Bloodstock Festival twice, Doomlines and Riffolution Festival, as well as playing alongside Green Lung, Crowbar, PIJN, Boss Keloid, and Raging Speedhorn.

Barbarian Hermit will host their album launch show at Manchester’s, Rebellion on 3rd August with support from Under, Bodach and Shred Dibnah. You can buy tickets for the release show here.

Here at At The Barrier, we are no strangers to The Prodigy. They have featured in our Time Tunnel feature (click here), and we also interviewed Maxim a few years back (click here). To add to the ranks, we have Adam Robertshaw from Barbarian Hermit with us to discuss how they influenced him and his art.

DECEMBER 2018, AMSTERDAM

The Prodigy hold an enormous place in my heart. In December 2018, at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, during the breakdown of Smack My Bitch Up where Maxim usually commands the crowd to kneel on the floor in anticipation of the drop, I knelt down on one knee and asked my then girlfriend to marry me. She said yes just as the chorus kicked back in and all hell broke loose in the mosh pit.

That show would turn out to be one of Keith Flint’s as he tragically took his own life just a few months later. To honour his memory I got The Prodigy’s iconic ‘ant’ emblem tattooed on my forearm. That’s how big a place they have in my heart.

LEGENDS

I would put The Prodigy in the same category as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Oasis and other legendary British bands who had a monumental impact on the musical landscape. But what sets them apart for me is that, while they’re hugely influential, there’s no Prodigy copycats. The rock-meets-rave concoction that Liam Howlett and his crew creates is so singular and recognisable that it’s difficult to make music that sounds like them.

I was too young to experience (no pun intended) their early work in the underground rave culture first hand. It wasn’t until I was in middle school and the iconic video for Firestarter came out that I first heard them. I was not yet the fully fledged metal head that I am today and was mostly listening to dance, indie, pop and whatever else was on the latest Now That’s What I Call Music compilation. But Fat Of The Land certainly helped push me in the direction of heavier music.

While I certainly enjoyed their music as my musical tastes shifted more towards the heavier side, it wasn’t until I saw them live for the first time that I really got into them in a big way. A Prodigy live show is a thrilling, almost overwhelming assault on the senses as a mass of rockers and ravers bounce off one another amidst flashing lasers, thunderous sub-drops and buzz-saw synths. Maxim and Keef prowl the stage, snarling and shrieking while Liam Howlett steers the ship from his control centre made up of an array of keyboards, drum machines and computers.

MUSIC FOR THE JILTED GENERATION

I first saw them headline Leeds Festival in 2002. I’ve seen them countless times since at various arenas across the UK and Europe. And despite the tragic loss of their talisman Keith, the two shows I’ve seen since their return to the stage in 2021 have been up there with some of the best performances I’ve seen them do, with Maxim filling his former partner-in-crime’s shoes and then some.

My favourite album of theirs probably changes every time I have a binge of their back catalogue. However, Music For The Jilted Generation, Fat Of The Land, and the latest No Tourists are most often in the top spot. I don’t think they’ve done a bad album; even the Liam Howlett solo project under the Prodigy moniker Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned is chock full of bangers.

I’m really hoping they release some new music at some point in the future but even if they don’t, their back catalogue is undeniable and I will continue to dance my arse of at their shows and cherish the memories they’ve given me.

Our thanks goes to Adam from Barbarian Hermit for his words on one of the greatest bands of all time. Check out Barbarian Hermit’s new single below: You can pre-order Barbarian Hermit’s new album here.

Barbarian Hermit photo by Jay Massie

Barbarian Hermit: Bandcamp / Facebook / X / Instagram

You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.

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