Cleansing

Prong

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 25, 1994)
• Original Release Date: January 25, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000028TD
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #132,250 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The members of Prong are angry, no question. While rage is a worthy quality for heavy metal, it's not enough to make the music great. Unfortunately, Prong often sound like they're imitating Metallica, specifically Kill 'Em All In fact, they imitate so assiduously that the most interesting material--the groove-oriented quality of "Whose Fist Is This Anyway?," the occasional riffs of "No Question," the slow, heavy groove of "Cut-Rate"--get lost in the noise. And Prong is noisy, with the distortion all the way up, perfectly complementing a vocalist who snarls more than he sings. If you like your metal straightforward and heavy hitting, Prong may be just your cup of TNT. But if you're looking for innovation, you'll have better luck elsewhere. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ignore the editorial review, March 29, 2005

By	N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Anyone on this page will do well to ignore the editorial review from Amazon. Prong is just another one of the countless metal bands that had an extremely underrated career and never got the recognition they deserved; much like bands like Helmet, Faith No More, Corrosion of Conformity, Biohazard, etc., and while "Cleansing" isn't perfect, it's still exceptional metal listening. Laced with some jazz/blues-esque grooves, "Cleansing" is probably the best album to come from this band masterminded by Tommy Victor, with "Whose Fist is This Anyway?", "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck", "Cut-Rate", and "No Question" being solid tracks, even if it does wear thin towards the second half of the disc and some of the songs outstay their welcome. Despite that, Prong was just one of the many ignored and underrated bands that deserved attention while pretenders like Korn and Limp Bizkit blew up, and if your a fan of Pantera, Slayer, Helmet, or COC, then you should definitely give Prong a try.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The worst editorial review I've seen yet, December 9, 2006

By	J. Phoenix - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Who is Genevieve Williams? Obviously she knows very little about rock music and wrote a ridiculous review in hopes the boss would transfer her out of the rock music review department with this completely foolish editorial review. Genevieve my dear, you made a fool of yourself.

This is one of the best metal albums ever made and while most all bands show influence of someone before them, in no way is Prong a copy cat band. But of course we all know that.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Editorial Review Is Smoking The Rock, May 3, 2006

By	T. Proud - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

How anyone could compare Cleansing to Kill 'Em All is beyond me. But when they preface the only fast song on the CD with "slow heavy groove of..." then you know they must be listening to something else. Also calling it "noisy". It's only one of the tightest sounding recordings in all of metal. There is absolute zero studio excess on this CD. It's very dry and slams at high volume.
This is an iconic album and along with Roots, Vulgar Display of Power, In The Meantime, Burn My Eyes will stand the test of time and never get old.

Prong are the evolution of Killing Joke into metal. Even though Killing Joke are still around and still great, Prong took the torch they dropped in the late 80's and created a great mix of Metal and industrial like starkness.
I agree that at first listens the 2nd half of the CD doesn't have the immediate fire and hook of the first half but over time those latter songs became undiscovered gems to me as they give the CD diversity that helps it last.

It's interesting that in retrospect some of the best metal recordings to be made came at a time when the banners yelled metal is dead, long live alternative. No wonder metal is "mostly" lame now as it's so prominent and popular that it's fallen into the mass produced masses. A band like Avenged Sevenfold is no different to me than the Goo Goo Dolls or any female pop singer.
Prong will never be in the same show as Christine Aguilera. Metallica would though *sigh*