Customer Reviews

Power of the Damager (Dig)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Prong returns after a few years with a beautifully dark cd! The riff master Tommy V has the pedal on overdrive here. This CD is much better sounding than 'Scorpio Rising' and seems a mile away in terms of quality. I liked the previous disc, but it was missing something. This CD misses nothing.

I wont do a track by track breakdown, but will say that the best tracks are Looking for Them, The Banishment, Worst of it, Cant Stop the Bleeding (catchy, accesible),Bad Fall (old school Prong).. But the tracks are all worthy. It works as a whole. No HORRID songs on the whole set!

If you liked Prong before but were disappointed by 'Scorpio' then you will love this. Sounds like it should have followed 'Rude Awakening'. But it is heavy! The riffs really get you going. Plenty of those Prong-esque guitar squeals throughout.

The grooves are there in droves and the mix is much better than its predecesor. Prong has delivered a great CD and i am very glad that the band has carried on. Old Prong fans will chew this up. new metal fans can learn from one of the best riff generators out there.. Great effort. Am very happy with this release. Definately one of '07's and Prongs best.

One of the least-known yet most influential bands in the hardcore metal scene of the early nineties, New York godfathers Prong have never really gotten the exposure and success they deserve. Despite a string of excellent experimental metal releases, many of which are now considered classic ("Beg To Differ" and "Cleansing" both come to mind), Tommy Victor and co. have never really broken through to the level of many of the bands who steal their riffs and style. Perhaps timing was an issue, as they came along during the birth of the grunge scene and the subsequent death of metal's popularity- but they have always also been a boundary-pushing and avant-garde metal band...hard to categorize and pigeonhole, combining elements of industrial, hardcore, punk, and thrash metal into a heady brew long before the so-called "post-metal" scene exploded over the last few years. Basically, these guys were post-metal before post-metal.

Prong is back with a vengeance and a new (still power trio) lineup, with Victor still the nucleus around which the rest of the band accretes, and this is without a doubt the best album they have released in close to a decade. He definately leads the charge, as well, with all of the patented Prong-isms I have come to know and love. Chuncky, groove-oriented riffing peppered with squealing harmonics. Sudden, dramatic shifts in speed and texture. Nihilistic lyrics describing urban and inner decay and struggle. Bizarre, "outside the box" unorthodox song structures and dissonant atmospherics. And happily, better vocal performances this time around than the nearly unlistenable "Scorpio Rising". A very solid, welcome return to all of the things that made Prong so great and influential to me when I was a teenager. Recommended!

As a longtime Prong devotee (all the way back from the 'Primitive Origins' days) I can honestly say that this is, without question, Tommy Victor's greatest work yet (with no shortage of praise for his new A'-Gunners, Monte Pittman and Aaron Rossi). Absolutely amazing music. I can't stop listening to this album! Mature lyrical content and blistering, innovative tunes... it doesn't get better than this!

So happy to have another Prong CD available, these guys have been doing this for a long time, and it seems to me just about every hard rock/metal band on the radio today sounds like them....who knows who those bands are since they don't tell the names of those bands when they play songs anyway. Point is, Prong did it way before any band today on the radio along with Helmet, Corrosion Of Conformity, and perhaps Biohazard etc in the early 90's, and I still hear the same sound coming from todays hard rock/psuedo metal (or whatever you wanna call it on the radio) bands. All those more technical thrash bands with sticatto riffs and start-stop rhythms laden with just enough melody, then an outburst of speed with a scream?...well, to me Prong outdo them all, they rule and that is why you need all of Prongs CD's (takes up less space than the hundreds of imitators also). I recommend "100% LIVE" also along with this one, then go back and pick up their early CD's, you'll be glad you did I think.

I thought Prong was cutting edge industrial metal when I first heard them, on the remarkable "Beg To Differ", which does not get its due for a groundbreaking lean and mean slashing masterwork. Tommy Victor played with ferocity and a hungry attitude, with short soloes but guitar patterns that could set your brain fluid boiling. After the misstep of "Prove You Wrong", they came back with "Cleansing", regarded as their high water mark that set the tone for "Power Of The Damager" with brutal guitars and catchy rhythm work that blasted you into hamburger with a beat.
"Power Of The Damager" is a great Prong CD, full of the energy of "Cleansing", but rife with hostility and hooks. Victor wants to beat you senseless, but do it to a groove. This is industrial without the computers and metal enough to satisfy any Meshuggahh or Fear Factory fan. Prong were pioneers of what one could call the future of heavy music, and sadly even broke up for a time because weenie bands from the alt rock world were hogging up the airwaves. Give this outfit the credit it has earned and deserves. Get the whole catalogue, with maybe the exception of "Prove You Wrong", and a shrug to "Rude Awakening", which was anticlimatic as a follow up to "Cleansing".

Prong is straight up metal and are very good at shredding. Power of the damager is the first Prong CD I ever heard and made me a huge fan upon hearing it. I love the band ministry, Prong is on the lead singer of ministry's record label.
Check these guys if you are into hardcore metal/industrial music.

I am plesantly suprised by this album. A lot of music critics pooped all over this album. But I think it is one of their best albums. They sound more determined in this music. It's crisp heavy and well thought out songs. Very impressed. If I was still a teenager I would be geeked about this album.

Prongs return in 2002 showed much promise and in 2003 Prong released 'Scorpio Rising' which was a good offering but not what you would expect after a 7 year hiatus. Fast foward to 2007 and Prong has released their most punishing album, 'Power Of The Damager' burns like a hot coal in your hands. Not since the days of 'Force Fed' has Prong sounded this aggressive and in your face. With the introduction of Monte Pittman on guitar and bass(in 2003) Tommy Victor has found a songwriting buddy. And they built upon this relationship even further on'Power Of The Damager'. But this time around instead strengthening on the live guitar as Pittman has done before he now has taken on bass duties and has propelled Prong even further than before. In addition to Pittman, Prong has recuited slamming drummer Aaron Rossi to fill the shoes of Dan Laudo who appeared both on 2002's '100% live' and on 'Scorpio Rising' and in this department fans will notice a HUGE difference. Rossi's playing and style adds a new dimension to Prongs already intense music. His style complements both Victors and Pittmans brutal riffs. And speaking about riffs..............WOW. The guitars are right in your face seething with intensity. Top notch arrangements and awesome production is what you will hear on 'Power Of The Damager'...........you will not be bored with this release!

Yes, Prong have returned. After the miserable release of Scorpio Rising a couple years ago, it seemed as though we may never hear another new Prong album that was remenicent of the previous 'Cleansing' and 'Rude Awakening' albums. Prong seemed to have fallen off the face of the metal scene after 'Rude Awakening' and when they reappeared with 'Scorpio Rising', it sounded as if Tommy Victor and crew had been gone too long. Scorpio didn't sound anything like the Prong we knew before and it looked like we may never hear them again.

But Prong have tapped into the root of their sound and have delivered a homerun in the form of 'Power of the Damager'. More akin to 'Cleansing' than 'Rude Awakening'. So much that they could have called it 'Cleansing 2', I'm glad they didn't but they could have. The familiar choppy, chugging guitar sound has returned. As well as the snapping of the drums and the gutteral throat of Tommy Victor himself. It's a wake up call in the form of a slap in the face to some of the more popular hard rock and metal bands of today. The sound is gritty and confident with it's feet firmly on the ground. No tricks or funny sound effects. Nothing fancy or fantastical. No, just true metal that makes no apologies and owes no explanations.

I give this 5 stars for creating a new album that ranks right up there with their best. For coming back from the place where so many bands have never returned. To be away that long, put out an album that strayed so far away from their sound but then to come right back with a hard hitting album that sounds like they never went anywhere at all. Welcome back.

There's a reason Tommy Victor is in demand as a 'guest' guitarist/writer with other well known artists -- it's because he is a pioneer and brings that sense of promise from when this musical genre was first being created. I don't necessarily like where some newer bands have taken the style, but this CD hearkens back to Prong's early days while sounding new at the same time. Prong has always been a great live act, and Tommy's collaborations with other bands are always a treat (there'll be a Ministry tour Spring '08), but I think this CD will put Prong back on the map for those who might have lost track of them, and will attract an audience of folks who were either too young or not quite 'with it' when Prong started this whole style.