Prong – Rude Awaking
When I saw the title and the album sleeve I have to say I temporarily despaired thinking I was going to be subjected to some terrible comedy band or the forebears of the Blood Hound Gang perhaps thankfully I was spared. Prong however seem to be a far more generic affair 90s metal, slightly industrial sounding in places with some slow pounding rhythm and drum creating a very nineties groove. In places there definitely an air of Korn, especially in the bass, as well as a heafty slice of bland middle of the road metal. Infact they sound like a Nine Inch Nails tribute band and a Korn tribute have swapped two of there members to create a super group and instead have created a very paint by numbers groove metal band. Wait does groove metal exist or did I just make that up? Either way you get the idea.
Prong certainly aren’t terrible, there songs bounce alone nicely and there are definitely some very danceable grooves in there but you get tracks like Avenue Of The Finest that are so unremarkable you imagine if you hit the groovy industrial button on a keyboard it would start blurting out. The real problem with Prong is that they are so competent at everything but the masters of nothing. A fun track like Controller sounds cringe worthy, the 90s seemed to spawn a million anti corporation bands for whatever reason but the lead singer lacks the visceral roar to creepy softness of Trent Reznor nor the dorm room against of a Zach Della Rocha and what your left with is an un-ironic like of anti machine blandness. The same goes for the more bouncy tracks at perfectly fine track like Slicing just doesn’t have the urgency of Korn or the twister mirth of Jonathan Davis voice, and feels flat.
Prong should certainly be commended this is no album of clangers it hangs together well, swaying, grooving and rocking along. There is the very occasional surprise Without Hope has a hip-hop tinge in the rhythm and a more intriguing brake down but it ultimately doesn’t go as far as you’d like it to and just ends. Man’s Ruin has a similar fate as it starts out with some rather exciting sleaze rock vocals and you are thinking what do we have here but it soon returns into a rather rudimentary metal jam. Thus Prong have successfully put together an album of good fun songs but have failed to do anything worthy on note.
Overall Thoughts: Prong make good music just not great intriguing music. Prong are best described as a playist band. Say you go out to a hard rock night at a club, you’ll hear your favourite Nail’s (Or Whoever) track and you’ll be dancing the night away, Prong could come on next and you’d really enjoy it you stay on the floor throwing shapes, but when you get home you when it comes to putting a record on you’ll put on the real deal music by true innovators. So ultimate Prong is very much a scene band in my estimation who know how to make their music and know how to put together a nice sounding record, if you’re really into this type of music you’ll snap this up. If your not you’ll opt for the big boys and leave Prong to the true metal/industrial/dancy groovy rock people, and so shall I. Perfectly acceptable listening but nothing more. (**1/2)
Songs To Download: The Controller, Slicing, Face Value
Gareth’s Professional Opinion: Rude Awakening is the sixth studio album by New York groove metal/industrial band Prong; following on from the seminal classic album Cleansing, which included such legendary tracks as Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck and Broken Peace.
Firstly it’s important to realise that Prong are an incredibly significant band. Trent, Mr Nine Inch Nails himself, cites this band as one of his biggest influences. Listen to the guitar hooks and you’ll hear the sound that made Korn multi-millionaires. Prong made Urban metal cool; taking it away from demons and magical monsters and placing it firmly on the streets. Simply put; Prong’s sound went onto influence a generation. You can still hear that influence today in metal.
Whilst Cleansing is the album that gained the band considerable airtime and an almost constant appearance on Head Bangers Ball in the early nineties, Rude Awakening is the album that preceded the big break up. Why? Well to claim the album is awful is a stretch. I personally think there’s some really decent stuff on here. But simply put, their record label were cocks, Cleansing was that damn good, and that’s that. Prong simply sounded tired on this album; even though I had a good friend of mine that maintains this is a better album than Cleansing. You’re having a fucking laugh. O.K so Unfortunately is one of my favourite metal tracks ever; one epic track does not a classic album make.
Decent, but a long way off anything benchmark. One thing though, they were doing this sort of stuff before Helmet ever thought of it, and I’m a massive, massive, massive Paige Hamilton fan. Bands today should seriously listen to Prong and learn how to write street smart metal.
Conclusion: Tired, but with some very bright spots. Suffers from being the follow up to one of the must have metal albums of the nineties. 7.5/10
Download: Unfortunately, Avenue of the Finest, Dark Signs
When I saw the title and the album sleeve I have to say I temporarily despaired thinking I was going to be subjected to some terrible comedy band or the forebears of the Blood Hound Gang perhaps thankfully I was spared. Prong however seem to be a far more generic affair 90s metal, slightly industrial sounding in places with some slow pounding rhythm and drum creating a very nineties groove. In places there definitely an air of Korn, especially in the bass, as well as a heafty slice of bland middle of the road metal. Infact they sound like a Nine Inch Nails tribute band and a Korn tribute have swapped two of there members to create a super group and instead have created a very paint by numbers groove metal band. Wait does groove metal exist or did I just make that up? Either way you get the idea.
Prong certainly aren’t terrible, there songs bounce alone nicely and there are definitely some very danceable grooves in there but you get tracks like Avenue Of The Finest that are so unremarkable you imagine if you hit the groovy industrial button on a keyboard it would start blurting out. The real problem with Prong is that they are so competent at everything but the masters of nothing. A fun track like Controller sounds cringe worthy, the 90s seemed to spawn a million anti corporation bands for whatever reason but the lead singer lacks the visceral roar to creepy softness of Trent Reznor nor the dorm room against of a Zach Della Rocha and what your left with is an un-ironic like of anti machine blandness. The same goes for the more bouncy tracks at perfectly fine track like Slicing just doesn’t have the urgency of Korn or the twister mirth of Jonathan Davis voice, and feels flat.
Prong should certainly be commended this is no album of clangers it hangs together well, swaying, grooving and rocking along. There is the very occasional surprise Without Hope has a hip-hop tinge in the rhythm and a more intriguing brake down but it ultimately doesn’t go as far as you’d like it to and just ends. Man’s Ruin has a similar fate as it starts out with some rather exciting sleaze rock vocals and you are thinking what do we have here but it soon returns into a rather rudimentary metal jam. Thus Prong have successfully put together an album of good fun songs but have failed to do anything worthy on note.
Overall Thoughts: Prong make good music just not great intriguing music. Prong are best described as a playist band. Say you go out to a hard rock night at a club, you’ll hear your favourite Nail’s (Or Whoever) track and you’ll be dancing the night away, Prong could come on next and you’d really enjoy it you stay on the floor throwing shapes, but when you get home you when it comes to putting a record on you’ll put on the real deal music by true innovators. So ultimate Prong is very much a scene band in my estimation who know how to make their music and know how to put together a nice sounding record, if you’re really into this type of music you’ll snap this up. If your not you’ll opt for the big boys and leave Prong to the true metal/industrial/dancy groovy rock people, and so shall I. Perfectly acceptable listening but nothing more. (**1/2)
Songs To Download: The Controller, Slicing, Face Value
Gareth’s Professional Opinion: Rude Awakening is the sixth studio album by New York groove metal/industrial band Prong; following on from the seminal classic album Cleansing, which included such legendary tracks as Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck and Broken Peace.
Firstly it’s important to realise that Prong are an incredibly significant band. Trent, Mr Nine Inch Nails himself, cites this band as one of his biggest influences. Listen to the guitar hooks and you’ll hear the sound that made Korn multi-millionaires. Prong made Urban metal cool; taking it away from demons and magical monsters and placing it firmly on the streets. Simply put; Prong’s sound went onto influence a generation. You can still hear that influence today in metal.
Whilst Cleansing is the album that gained the band considerable airtime and an almost constant appearance on Head Bangers Ball in the early nineties, Rude Awakening is the album that preceded the big break up. Why? Well to claim the album is awful is a stretch. I personally think there’s some really decent stuff on here. But simply put, their record label were cocks, Cleansing was that damn good, and that’s that. Prong simply sounded tired on this album; even though I had a good friend of mine that maintains this is a better album than Cleansing. You’re having a fucking laugh. O.K so Unfortunately is one of my favourite metal tracks ever; one epic track does not a classic album make.
Decent, but a long way off anything benchmark. One thing though, they were doing this sort of stuff before Helmet ever thought of it, and I’m a massive, massive, massive Paige Hamilton fan. Bands today should seriously listen to Prong and learn how to write street smart metal.
Conclusion: Tired, but with some very bright spots. Suffers from being the follow up to one of the must have metal albums of the nineties. 7.5/10
Download: Unfortunately, Avenue of the Finest, Dark Signs
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