Enjoying Deep Throat

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You're so good for me...

Andy Copping yesterday confirmed that The Prodigy will join Metallica and Black Sabbath as headliners for Download 2012. The Braintree crew will top the main stage bill on Friday.

Its not a huge surprise that this announcement has been greeted with mixed emotions by the Download-attending community but let's get a couple of things confirmed early doors; The Prodigy are an excellent choice of headliner. They also aren't, and have never professed to be, metal.

I've been a fan of the Prodge since their debut album Experience back in 1992. I fell out of love with them after The Fat Of The Land but rediscovered my admiration with 2009's Invaders Must Die. But enough of my personal history. The fact is, The Prodigy have always completely transcended the traditional 90s dance genre populated by the likes of The Shamen, The Rat Pack, etc. They always said they would never appear on Top of the Pops because they didn't want to sell out and despite back to back number ones in the 1990s with Firestarter and Breathe, they stuck to their guns on this. It might not be metal but that's a pretty punk attitude.

There's also the music itself. Yes, there's the proper cheesy quaver (that's 'raver' to everyone born post 1990) tunes like One Love but Liam Howlett, the brains of the operation, has shown a massive variety of compositions over the years. Opening track Jericho on Experience is a dark, grinding rave anthem, Their Law (featuring Pop Will Eat Itself) from Music for a Jilted Generation and Serial Thriller from Fat of the Land are both guitar-led headbangers - you can find elements of numerous genres across their back catalogue.

But does this mean they deserve a headline slot at one of the world's foremost rock and metal festivals? Well, yes. They are a band that has never sold out, constantly developed their sound whilst staying true to their hard dance roots and in doing so, became one of the first true crossover bands that brought together ravers, metallers, punks and popsters. And if anyone reading this can show me someone who has never drunkenly thrown some shapes to No Good (Start the Dance) I can show you a fucking liar.

It's shaping up to be one helluva festival.

M
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At this time of year...

And so it begins. The ball is well and truly rolling for Festival Season 2012 with yesterdays announcement that Metallica are one of the headliners for Download 2012. A decade after The Black Album and a decade since the inception of the Download festival, the thrash behemoth will be playing the album in it's entirety which to be honest, will be pretty epic.

But what other big names can we expect? Judging from Download booker Andy Copping's promise of another announcement today, plus the fact that Black Sabbath have a 'major announcement' today - you do the math, as they say. Machine Head is the other big rumour; if Download gets all three that's a huge lineup. Yes, Ozzy is a batshit crazy dodery old mentalist but it's Sabbath, for fuck's sake.

There's been whispers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers for Sonisphere which will cause some eyebrows to be raised. They're much bigger than last year's day two headliner Biffy Clyro but I'd have them pegged as more a Reading/Leeds top-biller.

The trollmill has already kicked into overdrive with the elbow pad-wearing pavement lickers proclaiming that Metallica are shit, Maiden should do it, and so on, which will continue for roughly the next 500 years. With this in mind, I've decided that every week I'm going to wander the Interweb to try and find the most ridiculous comment pertaining to the suitability/metal credentials of particular bands.

This week's Not Metulz Award for Bellendery comes from Facebook and is in a thread discussing Megadeth's new album Th1rt3en:

"megashit! more metal in a fucken cricket bat."

What a fucken idiot.

So keep your eyes peeled and send me a link via Twitter to any hilariously backwards comments.
Until next time gangsters.
M
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I'm on a plane...