Prong

I'm trying to recall how I got into this band...oh yeah, now I remember. At first I passed them off as some shameless, pop-metal clone, based on the stupid cover of their Beg to Differ album; this wound up coloring my first perception of their "hit" songs, "Unconditional" and "Prove You Wrong". How the HELL could I even think that?? This band ROCKS, ROCKS, and ROCKS MORE! Unfortunately, I heard they recently broke up...which sucks, they were getting better with each album.

"Primitive Origins"

  1. "Disbelief" (1:42)
  2. "Watching" (1:52)
  3. "Cling to Life" (1:39)
  4. "Denial" (1:42)
  5. "Dreams Like That" (2:19)
  6. "In My Veins" (2:09)
  7. "Climate Control" (3:13)
  8. "Persecution"--instrumental (4:56)

They couldn't have come up with a more appropriate album title for this one if they tried. We're talking raw, raw, RAW. Pure hardcore, wild frenzied & uninhibited, sounding absolutely nothing like the music they would do later (except on the instrumental "Persecution", belying the talent which was just about to burst forth...)

Oh yeah, recently I stumbled across 2 more early Prong tracks, "Daily Dose" and "Mind the Cap", when I created my Digital Puppies in Cyberspace custom CD...

"Force Fed"

  1. "Freezer Burn" (2:33)
  2. "Forgery" (1:52)
  3. "Senseless Abuse" (3:18)
  4. "Primitive Origins" (3:23)
  5. "Aggravated Condition" (2:52)
  6. "The Coliseum"--instrumental (2:33)
  7. "Decay" (2:44)
  8. "It's Been Decided"--instrumental (2:18)
  9. "Force Fed" (2:48)
  10. "The Taming" (1:47)
  11. "Bought and Sold" (3:14)
  12. "Look Up at the Sun" (3:07)
  13. "Drainpipe" (2:20)

It's interesting to note that this album, and "Primitive Origins" as well, were the very LAST two crappy vinyl records I ever bought! Granted, putting money into crappy vinyl at that point was kinda like repairing your car's 8-track player...but I'd never seen the records before and figured that was the only way I'd be able to get them. Well, about a year later (after buying all their other CDs up to Cleansing), I found this one on CD. It really isn't the best album in the world, mostly due to the totally shitty production. But the power of the band is plainly evident in many of the songs (especially the two instrumentals), and has a raw, hardcore edge throughout the whole thing.

"Beg to Differ"

  1. "For Dear Life" (3:26)
  2. "Steady Decline" (4:13)
  3. "Beg to Differ" (4:15)
  4. "Lost and Found" (4:05)
  5. "Your Fear" (4:51)
  6. "Take it in Hand" (3:43)
  7. "Intermenstrual, D.S.B."--instrumental (3:12)
  8. "Right to Nothing" (2:57)
  9. "Prime Cut" (3:49)
  10. "Just the Same" (4:51)
  11. "Third from the Sun"--live (5:56)

This has gotta be the STUPIDEST album cover I've ever seen...but you can't judge a book by it's cover, indeed! All the songs here are of simple construction around catchy, easily identifiable riffs...great music, though NOTHING compared to the amazing shit they put out later! "Third from the Sun" is a Jimi Hendrix song (I think...)

Oh yeah, there's a live version of "Dying Breed" which I own on the Wake-Up Call for the '90's promotional CD, dunno if a studio version exists but it sounds like it was around the time of these sessions. Also, Prong supplied a track for the Airheads soundtrack, although that happened a couple years later...

"Prove You Wrong"

  1. "Irrelevant Thoughts" (2:36)
  2. "Unconditional" (4:44)
  3. "Positively Blind" (2:43)
  4. "Prove You Wrong" (3:30)
  5. "Hell if I Could" (3:59)
  6. "Pointless" (3:06)
  7. "Contradictions" (4:10)
  8. "Torn Between" (3:11)
  9. "Brainwave" (3:00)
  10. "Territorial Rites"--instrumental
  11. "Get a Grip (on Yourself)" (3:05)
  12. "Shouldn't Have Bothered" (2:38)
  13. "No Way to Deny It" (4:42)

I can't remember if I actually bought this CD or if it was a gift from someone. Certainly, I can remember not liking it at all (except for "Unconditional" to some extent) until I actually sat down and LISTENED to the damn thing...and was BLOWN AWAY!! This album is just too cool for words...there's the hard-driving, road-anthem of "Unconditional" (did I mention how much I liked that song?), the psychedelic "Prove You Wrong", and the amazingly rhythmic instrumental "Territorial Rites". "Get a Grip On Yourself" is another of my favorites, and sounds quite different than the rest of the album (I think it's a cover song, but don't quote me on that...)

Oh yeah, much of the power & unique sound of this CD comes from bass player Troy Gregory, who shares lead vocals on many songs (such as the title track.) I used to think he was the band's original bassist, but it turns out he only played on this album (previously he was in Flotsam & Jetsam, in fact he was the guy who originally replaced Jason Newsted...)

"Whose Fist is This Anyway?" (EP)

  1. "Prove You Wrong"--Fuzzbuster Mix (4:50)
  2. "Get a Grip (on Yourself)"--Harm Mix (3:25)
  3. "Hell if I Could"--Dub Mix (4:56)
  4. "Irrelevant Thoughts"--Safety Mix (2:52)
  5. "Talk Talk" (1:59)
  6. "Prove You Wrong"--Xanax Mix (8:46)

Kinda weird title for this EP, since it came out before Cleansing and thus has nothing to do with the song of that name...well, as all remix albums go, this one is nothing spectacular, and in fact is kinda annoying (although I LOVE how they called one version the "Xanax Mix"!) The only reason I bought it was for the song "Talk Talk"...which also wasn't that impressive, not even close to matching the awesomeness of the original version.

"Cleansing"

  1. "Another Worldly Device" (3:23)
  2. "Whose Fist is This Anyway?" (4:41)
  3. "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" (4:11)
  4. "Cut-Rate" (4:52)
  5. "Broken Peace" (6:11)
  6. "One Outnumbered" (4:57)
  7. "Out of this Misery" (4:25)
  8. "No Question" (4:16)
  9. "Not of this Earth" (6:23)
  10. "Home Rule" (3:57)
  11. "Sublime" (3:51)
  12. "Test" (6:39)

Oh my, oh my. When I first listened to this one, I knew I'd found something special by the opening riff of "Whose Fist Is This Anyway". I made a tape for my car and listened to it exclusively for MONTHS. With a 60-minute commute, that was at least 1-1/2 times a day :-) There's a couple weak songs here ("One Outnumbered" and "Sublime", if I remember right) but they only stick out because they are merely excellent, not extraordinary. DAMN fine album.

Now here's something interesting I just found out...Troy Gregory left the band, and was replaced by Paul Raven of Killing Joke -- I never thought about comparing Prong with K.Joke, but now that I think about it, it sure fits! What's even more interesting is that Troy Gregory wound up joining the Jokesters for their Democracy tour...

"Rude Awakening"

  1. "Controller" (3:39)
  2. "Caprice" (2:46)
  3. "Rude Awakening" (4:18)
  4. "Unfortunately" (3:08)
  5. "Face Value" (4:09)
  6. "Avenue of the Finest" (3:37)
  7. "Slicing" (3:27)
  8. "Without Hope" (3:12)
  9. "Mansruin" (3:29)
  10. "Innocence Gone" (3:10)
  11. "Dark Signs" (3:21)
  12. "Close the Door" (4:05)
  13. "Proud Division" (5:45)

You know the story, it's the toughest thing in the world to follow up on a five-star classic. Well, this is one of the rare times in history when a band actually SURPASSES it! The rhythms and chord progressions that were merely experimented with on Cleansing are brought to perfection here. In fact this album creates an entire new sound which I suppose you could call hardcore/industrial -- AND you can dance to it! The CD also has one of those annoying "multimedia" things on it, which is pretty cool for the "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" movie file but annoying because my computer gets all confused when I stick it in the cd-rom slot...

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