Facebook Slider

Prong, Voodoo Lounge, Dublin

  • Published in Live

 

Photo by Kim Larysa

New York metallers Prong are back in town to rock the Voodoo Lounge. With the release of their latest album, Zero Days just around the corner, it will be interesting to her if they play any of the new songs alongside the ‘90s classics that the crowd know and love. There are still tickets on the door so even though the room is quite full, there is elbow room in front of the stage. It’s a relatively comfortable night in Voodoo. It is, once again, a credit to Dublin Metal Events that Prong are here. Before the emergence of this independent promoter, bands like this bypassed Ireland, North and South, on tour like this. Now it is rare for a band to play the UK and not include at least one Irish date. While the line check is taking place we take a look around at the crowd. There are not many young people here. Perhaps we can risk a jaunt into the mosh pit?

The Beg To Differ backdrop lets us know what we are in for. Veteran frontman Tommy Victor comes out smiling and briefly introduces the band. Tonight proves beyond all doubt that Prong are far superior live than on any of the their studio work.  ‘Ultimate Authority’ from last year’s X-No Absolutes is more powerful live than it is on record. It comes swaggering in with a hardcore bounce. ‘Beg To Differ’ itself follows in all its glory. Prong’s recent albums have suffered from over-production but live they are raw and ferocious. Victor sounds as righteous as he ever did. He prowls the lip of the stage, posing for pictures while jutting out his jaw and his guitar into the crowd. He shakes hands and shares smiles with the fans. He even stops to ask the audience “What’s the craic?”; a sure way to win over any Irish crowd.

‘Rude Awakening’ and ‘Broken Peace’ go down particularly well but even the lesser known tunes sound great. There is not a bad song among them and the band are on fire tonight. There’s a minor stage invasion during ‘Another Worldly Device’, and ‘Whose Fist Is This Anyway?’ provokes a raucous reaction with a lot of stage diving. Their best known tune, ‘Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck’, seamlessly follows and the fun really starts. Things take a comedic turn with a bunch of middle-aged men lining up to stage dive. As impressive as the band are musically, the crowd are their match comically. The climax is during the closing number when an inebriated oul’ lad gets up on stage to take a picture of the audience and can’t work his phone. After much badgering from the crew he eventually stage dives and lands on his head. He seems to be taking the “Snap your neck” part literally.

An encore of ‘Revenge... Best Served Cold’, and ‘For Dear Life’ brings proceeding to a close with a hardcore groove. Drummer Art Cruz comes out from behind the kit and shakes the hands of everyone in the first few rows. He’s about to depart when he suggests one more to the sound engineer, then to the rest of the band. The decision invokes euphoria in the audience. After, not one but three songs they call it a night. The sweat cools on our skin on the walk down the quays. We’re gonna feel this one in the morning.

Read more...

Prong - Zero Days

  • Published in Albums

Zero Days is the twelfth album from Tommy Victor’s on-again, off-again post-thrash group, Prong. Victor formed the band in 1986 while he was sound engineer at the world-renowned dive bar, CBGB’s. Their heyday was the early to mid ’90s when albums like Beg To Differ and Cleansing rode the slipstream of grunge into the mainstream. That was in their industrial-tinged phase when they were influenced by, and influencing, the likes of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. Indeed, Victor went on to join Ministry during one of Prong’s hiatus. The industrial influence has long fallen away and this is a straight up metal groove from the power trio of Victor, Mike Longworth (bass), and Art Cruz (drums).

Zero Days is Prong’s fifth album since Victor resurrected the band in 2012, and at this point, it feels like they are doing too much. The downtuned guitars make the riffs sound like every other metal band. The production is contrarily trying to turn their post-hardcore industrial sound into pop-punk. Victor no longer sounds menacing and righteously indignant, he sounds like he’s skating down Venice Beach Boulevard with a backwards baseball cap on his noggin. This is particularly evident on ‘Divide and Conquer' and ‘Blood Out Of Stone’. The over-production on the vocals is problematic and it spoils the enjoyment of Prong’s usually top-notch riffing. Victor has produced it himself again but the next record would benefit from a trip to Illinois to be overseen by Steve Albini.

Wisely opening with the hardcore ‘However It May End', Zero Days quickly loses momentum. ‘Off The Grid’ and ‘Forced Into Tolerance’ are generic and forgettable thrashers. The latter is also on dodgy ground in social terms. It sounds like an anthem for Trumpian fascism. There’s a massive upturn in proceedings in the final quarter of the album. It’s as if the production budget ran out towards the end and, with ‘Rulers Of The Collective’, we get a glimpse of prime Prong. Victor is throaty and shouty. The guitars are meaty and pushed to the fore, and the multi-tracking is kept to an acceptable level. ‘Compulsive Future Projection’ follows it and is an unusual song from the band. It is slower and more spacious than what has preceded it. These traits mark it as the standout track on Zero Days.  

All of which makes a fine ending to this album. It’s such a pity that it takes so long to get good, or even listenable. Last years’ X-No Absolutes was a decent offering but didn’t demand repeated listening after the initial release. With Zero Days, the returns continue to diminish. A couple of years away from the studio, a new producer, and some better quality control will be needed for Prong to retain any currency.

Read more...
Subscribe to this RSS feed