Prong! - Scorpio Rising by Tim Byrnes

Prong! - Scorpio Rising
Label: Locomotive
Rating:

Tommy Victor, who for all intents and purposes IS Prong, used to work the soundboard at CBGB during the 80's and sat through it all. Good, bad and indifferent. Taking a little from punk, a little from Industrial and Hardcore, he filtered it all through his own vision and came up with �Beg to Differ' in 1990 .

That CD came on like a runaway train, all dense guitar wallop, no solos thank you, and set the stage for a lot of similar bands to achieve the kind of success that eluded Prong throughout the decade.

This should change with the release of "Scorpio Rising". Nothing if not more powerful and direct than their previous work (all worth checking out if you're unfamiliar), "Scorpio" continues the band's mix of Slam and Swing that, to my mind, always differentiated them from the soundalike Hardcore scene.

Downtuned guitars pound out tight, menacing riffs while Victor sings words of understandable anger at being left with little more than dread and alienation. The beats groove. This is the work of those who have seen it all and been most of it.

Songs like "Detached" and "All Knowing Force" return, with us now, to those glorious days of yesteryear while "Avoid Promises" and "Letter to a Friend" break new and more thoughtful ground. There are fewer samples on this CD than usual, but Prong's Industrial streak never depended on them anyway. The band is back with renewed intent and power and that can't be nothing but good.

There was a time in the early 90's where I though that Prong, along with Voivod, would take "hard" music out of the critic's ghetto and into the mainstream by elevating the subject matter and eschewing the guitar wankery that abounded. Well, Nirvana came along and that was that. Prong and Voivod withered on the vine while we spent the next 10 years being bombarded by bad Nirvana clones and Doors impersonators.

Now, though, Prong (as well as Voivod) are back to slam our faces into a brick wall with intelligence and conviction. No whining about bad childhoods or the music industry.

Real music for real people.
Go get �em, guys.