The Prodigy might not be ancient history, but five years in pop music can feel like an eternity, and that's how long we've been waiting for them to release some new material.
A new album was due at the start of 2002, but now insiders say it will "probably" be out this year. Maybe The Prodigy would be better off staying in England and finishing the damn thing rather than traveling across the world to Japan in March in a bid to remind their slowly dwindling fan base that 1) they still exist and 2) they still matter.
Bands like Slipknot have filled the big-beat punk-metal vacuum left by the group -- and stolen some of their audience in the process -- but, basically, The Prodigy did it before them, and did it better, with superior tunes, with grooves (thanks to infusions of hip-hop) and with tons more charisma. But, apart from a couple of new tracks, at their upcoming Tokyo show The Prodigy are likely going to be playing music we first heard in 1997.