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Prong: Cleansing

26/11/10 || revenant

Being somewhat bored as I made my way into work the other day on the train, I started putting together a list of things that are the ultimate in “cool”. Yeah, pretty sad, but I’m tired of looking out the window or playing “stare at a random until they become awkwardly aware of it”, so what else could I do? Anyway, here’s what I came up with:

James Dean
Dating a model
Zonda cars
Breasts (yeah, I’m a breast man)
Me
Having cake and eating it too
Picking and an air hostess and fucking her mid flight
The first three tracks of “Cleansing” by Prong

OK, I didn’t get very far, but how can you go on after “Another Worldly Device”, “Whose First is this Anyway?” and “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” are mentioned. Answer: you can’t. These songs are pure auditory gold and the ultimate in cool when it comes to music. Even if you’re not a big groove metal fan, these songs will still infect you like AIDS. The stars just align for Prong on them, and the simple but brilliant riffs roll out to a beautiful up tempo drum and bass backing have you masturbating harder than you were the first time you saw Pamela Anderson.

Right now you’re probably thinking “it’s great you love the first three tracks, what about the rest of the album?” Well, to be honest, the rest of the album is pretty good, but it just doesn’t have the massive hooks that these opening three tracks have. When I first bought this on CD, I used to get to around track 6 before I would finally succumb to the urge to go back and listen to the first three tracks again, they are that damn infectious. The rest of the album does have some goods tunes, many of which are real growers (even though they don’t have the initial impact of the first three), but never do they reach the great heights initially alluded to.

Part of the problem, I think, stems from Tommy Victor’s vocals. When Prong are at their best with the instrumental side, the vocal performance isn’t a big deal because the music is just so damn good that nobody fucken cares. But when the riffs aren’t carrying as much hook, the vocals are needed to step up and add some personality to the music. Tommy’s vocals don’t do this. There is no authority or strength to his delivery to carry the lesser songs through (refer to “Out of this Misery” or “Home Rule” as examples). Maybe I’m a harsh judge, and you can tell me I’m full of shit in the forum, but I don’t think he’s vocals are quite up to it. This is not a big problem in “Cleansing”, but it sure showed on their follow up “Rude Awakening”.

So there you have it, three absolute cracking tracks followed by a bunch of good ones. Not enough for me to induct this one into the Class6(66) section, but still an album I consider worth talking about and listening to. If the whole album had lived up to the promise shown in the first three tracks, I’d be going apeshit in this review, slapping down the big 10, flipping you lot the double bird and driving off into the sunset. As it is, I still like this album a lot and anyone who is impartial to groove and doesn’t already have this album needs to check it out. A near classic.

8,5

Information
Released: 1994
Label: Epic Records
Website: www.prongmusic.com
Band
Tommy Victor: vocals, guitars
Paul Raven: bass
John Bechdel: keyboards
Ted Parsons: drums

Tracklist
01. Another Worldly Device
02. Whose Fist Is This Anyway?
03. Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck
04. Cut-Rate
05. Broken Peace
06. One Out Numbered
07. Out of This Misery
08. No Question
09. Not of This Earth
10. Home Rule
11. Sublime
12. Test

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