Metal trio Prong emerge triumphant again on searing new album ‘State of Emergency’, a punchy collection of groove metal featuring an unlikely cover.
Always criminally underrated, Prong are one of the most dependable bands in metal. Despite numerous line-up changes and career ups and downs, the power trio, led by sole original member-songwriter-frontman-guitarist Tommy Victor has been remarkably consistent since their debut in 1989.
They’ve been in especially fine form since 2012’s Carved Into Stone, pumping out 3 more excellent studio albums and a covers record, all solid pieces of work that continue to enthrall longtime fans while also catching the ear of newcomers.
And now they reemerge with State of Emergency (Oct 6, Steamhammer/SPV ), which feels just as heavy as classic 90’s works like Prove You Wrong and Cleansing. The album, produced by long time collaborator Steve Evetts (who also plays bass on the record) is an economically brutal piece of work–all fury, no filler.
The Descent is a classic thrash ripper that opens the album in savage fashion, with one of Victor’s most compelling vocal performances, topped off with a blistering guitar solo from Soulfly’s Marc Rizzo. State of Emergency has a classic groove ala fan favorite Broken Peace, buttressed by ghostly guitar wails.
Those seismic tracks are qualled by the propulsive choppy riffs of the wonderfully titled Light Turns Black, and the four on the floor stomp of Who Told Me, a song boiling over with paranoia and abrasive soundscapes.
Breaking Point is another rager, punctuated by Victor’s love of squealing pinch harmonics, but I worry lyrics like “It’s got to stop – it’s got to end/People have had enough/The flat out lies – all untrue/What is said you cannot trust” plays into the pro-Trump anti-journalism vibe Victor seemed to espouse a few years back (that being said, he’s being coy these days, so maybe he’s become more equal opportunity in his targets). The song is one of the more conventional tracks on the album, but still has plenty of bite.
Victor said recently that “Non-Existence, with its techno-style noise guitar that’s omnipresent on this album, is a bit like my retrospective glance at Rude Awakening”. and the song definitely recalls that 1996 industrial tinged album’s title track, featuring a heavy droning chorus and punchy verse. It shows that Victor has always had a knack for splicing melodic hooks into abrasive material, which has separated Prong from their contemporaries and makes it the album’s catchiest track.
Victor continues in that more hooky rock vein on two other earworms, the 90’s alternative vibe of Disconnected, full of angsty projection and a triumphantly defiant chorus (“how can I possibly know your woes?”), and Compliant, a post-punk infused number with a lurching stop-start riff and piercing delayed guitar lines.
State of Emergency was recorded in Victor’s original home turf of New York City, where he recently moved back to after a stint in L.A. The album even features a homecoming tune, the punchy punk-driven Back (NYC), which features backing vocals’s from Steve Zing, Victor’s compatriot when he performs with Danzig.
The album ends with an unlikely cover. The band tackles Rush’s Working Man, which feels apropos given Victor’s unerring work ethic. He makes the song his own, sharpening its’ riff and sonic attack, with his serrated wail adding new gravitas to the song’s lyrics of self reliance.
State of Emergency is yet another triumph for Prong: a solid, concise collection of metal stompers with melodic integrity and chops to spare. Victor seems unmarred from time and age, continuing to make the case that Prong are as relevant now as they ever were, and still catchy as hell.
