now i feel dumb. luxury boxset it is

half the price? i'm there. thanx man

Now Prodigy songwriter Howlett has 16 million album sales to his name and is mates with Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.

Howlett even delayed handing in the fifth Prodigy album, Invaders Must Die, to include some of Grohl's stick work.

"He's the nicest American you'll ever meet," Howlett says of the Foo Fighters frontman, who appears on Run With Wolves.

"It's ferocious, that tune," Howlett says. "It's definitely one of the more venomous tracks on the album.

"It's fast and has a big, evil synth riff that comes in for the hook."

After 1½ years spent working on the album, Howlett had actually finished the record when a bored Grohl emailed him.

"He'd finished touring and wanted to get in the studio and play drums. He asked how I'd feel about him sending me a load of his drum samples to use," Howlett says.

"I was like 'Come on'. So he went into the studio, laid down all these beats and sent me the hard drive in the hope I'd be inspired.

"We wrote the track in four days. I sent it back, he re-drummed it and here we are."

That's the way it should happen, Howlett says, adding that Grohl is the sort of person who would just jump on the drums if they happened to be at a festival together.

"He has no reservations about having a good time and doing it for the right reasons," he says.

"That's the type of person I like to work with.

"It's an honour to have him on the album. People will listen to the track and recognise his sound straight away."

Invaders Must Die

The album, Invaders Must Die, will be released in March on the band's new self-run label, Take Me to the Hospital.

Grohl is the only guest, apart from Does It Offend You, Yeah?'s James Rushent.

It's no accident. Howlett invited external vocalists, but he won't name them, saying they "weren't exciting enough to be on the record; they're on the shelf for the time being".

For the previous Prodigy album, 2004's Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, Howlett dispensed with usual vocalist Keith Flint (the menacing voice of Breathe and Firestarter) for everyone from Juliet Lewis to his brother-in-law, Liam Gallagher.

As a very belated follow-up to their 1997 worldwide smash The Fat of the Land, it was always destined to struggle. "It was the record I had to do," Howlett says.

"It was a reset for the band. I'm really proud of that record. It was totally necessary. It caused a lot of confusion but I don't care. We wouldn't be here now had I not done that album."

Striking Flint

He admits the lack of input from Flint was symptomatic of relations in The Prodigy at the time.

"It was a hard time for the band. We'd been through a lot of rubbish. I wasn't really communicating with Keith," Howlett says.

"There was some paranoia floating around, some tension. I didn't speak to Keith for a year-and-a-half. We fell out a bit.

"I thought it was a brave move to not write Fat of the Land Part 2. In my head it was a DJ beats sample record. That's what I did."

This time round Flint and bandmate Maxim are on board for Invaders Must Die.

"It's a total band album," Howlett says. "We can play every track live, which is important to us."

Howlett says he went back and listened to The Prodigy's rave-influenced 1992 debut Experience to revisit his youth.

"Even though the rave scene had its corny moments I loved that whole London warehouse scene," he says. "There's a lot of inspiration on this new album from that – the beats, the sounds – but it's not a retro album. It sounds really fresh. It's a big riff album. Every track is based around a big riff.

"The album is electronic but it's also pretty ferocious. Warrior's Dance is a proper old-school '91-style tune, but still sounds fresh. It's a big Prodigy anthem already and it's not even out yet

I've been reading some of your posts and know you guys have been curious about 'Stab'...well, it's on the new album with a new name of course. It's now "Stand Up", so rest easy...it's all good!

today the man who is responsible for the track "Run With The Wolves" turned 40 years old, happy birthday to him adadaja!

Thats a pretty wiiiiide statement there, buddy. Is it Liam? Keith? Grohl? LOL?

Thats a pretty wiiiiide statement there, buddy. Is it Liam? Keith? Grohl? LOL?

945*937 cd cover ripped from amazon.com:) picture merged by me with a small bug
http://funkyimg.com/viewer.php?img=/2/2 ... astrip.png