Prong: ‘Prong’ Review: Tommy Victor and co. encompass all their diverse sonic elements on eponymous album.
★★★★
Prong has never been a band content to stay in one lane. Since emerging from New York’s hardcore scene in the late ’80s, Tommy Victor has spent decades welding together thrash, hardcore, groove metal, industrial and post-punk. The band’s self-titled 14th studio album ( Nov. 6, Napalm Records) brings those elements together in a forceful summation of its history, revisiting familiar territory without simply retracing old ground.
Opening track “The Banner” sets the tone, launching into Slayer-esque thrash before shifting into a broad, almost post-grunge chorus. A muscular breakdown recalls Metallica’s Master of Puppets, while Victor unleashes a blistering, wah-drenched solo. It’s a potent introduction to an album that balances outright aggression with an unexpectedly strong melodic streak.
That balance is especially evident on “Uncertain Truth.” A gothic bassline and guitars recalling early Cure and Kommunity FK give way to melodic vocals and an anthemic chorus. Victor explores the difficulty of distinguishing fact from belief, repeating “You know the truth is uncertain” as both a confession and a warning. It’s one of the album’s most memorable departures from its relentless assault.
Prong’s industrial side comes into focus on “The Uprising,” where a robotic beat drives a groove-metal framework flecked with electronic textures. The combination recalls 90’s albums Cleansing and Rude Awakening, when Victor perfected the art of fusing his unique brand of metal with subtle industrial textures.
“Commonsense Resolution” and “Doomed World” lean into the band’s longstanding debt to Killing Joke. The former rides a relentless post-punk drone punctuated by spasmodic drumming, while the latter pairs an ominous pulse with a hardcore punk chorus. Their contrasting perspectives offer some welcome variety. “Commonsense Resolution” advocates living in the moment and recognizing the limits of one’s own understanding, while “Doomed World” confronts a society consumed by division and mutual suspicion.
The album’s more direct attacks hit just as hard. “New Commission” charges ahead with hardcore-thrash riffs before detouring into darkwave synths and returning to its original assault. Its lyrics rail against lowered standards, handouts, and competing interests, adopting a confrontational tone that leaves the precise targets open to interpretation.
“Fear the Sun” delivers another concentrated burst of New York hardcore, its punishing riff and chant-ready refrain built for the pit. “I fear the sun has burned your mind,” Victor snarls, turning perpetual brightness into something oppressive.
“Proportionate Response” is among the record’s most ferocious moments, a hardcore barrage punctuated by a Danzig-like breakdown riff (fitting given Victor is Danzig’s guitarist) and a furious shredding solo. “Transgression” continues the attack with a punishing bulldozer riff and relentless kick-drum barrage, targeting the manipulation of history and the distortion of facts to serve ideology.
“Simulated Drowning” delivers another full-throttle thrash blast, built around a chant-ready chorus and lyrics about psychological coercion. “I won’t drown to prove your gain” captures the defiance running throughout the record. The closing “Our Continuance,” meanwhile, takes a more atmospheric approach, opening with haunting post-punk textures and granulated synths before descending into a bleak collision of gothic atmosphere and lurching metal. Its discordant breakdowns eventually dissolve into an industrial drone, leaving the album suspended in unease.
Lyrically, Prong tackles misinformation, ideological manipulation, and social division. Given Tommy Victor’s past public praise of Donald Trump, the contrast between songs condemning the distortion of facts and others invoking enemies and threats to civilization is intriguing, if at times contradictory. Victor has recently criticized political polarization but hasn’t clarified whether his views have changed, but these potentially opposing viewpoints are left open to interpretation.
Ultimately, this doesn’t erase the musical strengths of a record that draws on a much broader range of influences that transcends it’s topical aspects. But it’s self reliance in an uncertain world that has always been Victor’s primary lyrical impetus, and that continues on Prong.
Andy Sneap’s mixing and mastering give Prong a crisp, punchy sound, allowing the guitars, industrial textures, and muscular rhythm section (Tyler Joseph on drums and Christopher Dead on bass) to retain their individual character. Just as importantly, Victor understands that heaviness alone isn’t enough. The expansive chorus of “The Banner,” the gothic atmosphere of “Uncertain Truth,” and the hypnotic repetition of “Commonsense Resolution” keep the album from becoming homogenous.
The self-titled designation makes sense. Rather than recreating one particular chapter of the band’s history, Prong brings together the disparate sonic elements that have defined Victor’s musical vision for decades. The result is a forceful reaffirmation of purpose, with enough stylistic variety to keep the familiar formula fresh. Its lyrics occasionally complicate the picture, but musically, Prong remains a formidable machine, one that still knows how to make a scalpel-sharp aural assault that resonates long after the final track fades.
