Since forming in New York City in 1986, Prong have released nine albums and left an indelible impact on modern metal. For anyone who’s just tuning in, searching for Prong’s ‘classic’ release or wondering whether the edge has dissipated by now, frontman and lone mainstay Tommy Victor has some tips.
“Scorpio Rising I think’s crap, and Power Of The Damager has some good songs on it but the production wasn’t that great. Prove You Wrong; I was not crazy about the way it sounded. Again, I thought there was some good material.”
Of course, who’s to say Victor’s an appropriate point of authority? Sure, he’s been Prong’s major songwriting force all along, but that doesn’t make him an infallible adjudicator of the band’s history.
“My general perception of things are usually wrong,” he says. “Going back ten years I was like, ‘I can’t write any more Prong material.’ I’m easily discouraged or I get negative real fast. It’s only when I get in there and start realising that it can be done, that’s when I’m like, ‘I’m OK – I can do this.’”
This realisation explains the group’s recent career resurgence. After a seven-year release drought, Prong relaunched in 2002 with Scorpio Rising. Band activity remained fairly intermittent for the rest of the decade, but Victor is now focusing on Prong full-time. Album number eight, Carved Into Stone, came out in 2012, then Ruining Lives followed in April this year. Interestingly, with regards to these two records, Victor’s erstwhile dissatisfaction has flipped completely.
“Carved Into Stone is excellent and I think Ruining Lives is excellent,” he says. “[Ruining Lives] hasgot some of the best songs I’ve ever written with Prong. In my opinion, it rates there as one of the best. There wasn’t that many problems making it and when things are very positive and everything’s moving smoothly, a lot of times you come out with something good.”
While Prong are conveniently classed as a hard rock act, over the last 28 years the band has traipsed widely through the heavy spectrum. The forthright technicality of recent years is a sidestep from the hardcore thrash sound of Prong’s earliest material and the industrial grooves heard on 1994’s commercial crossover Cleansing. Perhaps this amorphous quality has something to do with the fact that members have come and gone almost as frequently as records have been released. Either way, retreating to self-criticism, Victor doesn’t view the characteristic diversity as a major asset.
“I’m not really worried about repeating myself,” he says. “I almost want that to happen, because that’s something that Prong has been lacking. We haven’t repeated ourselves and people don’t know what to expect. It almost becomes arrogant, in a way.”
Presumably this is another factor contributing to the frontman’s enthusiasm for the latest two offerings. The records play as companion pieces, propelled by a similar energy and compositional boldness. Still, that’s not the result of intra-band stability.
“Alexei [Rodriguez], who was the drummer on Carved Into Stone and was drumming live for several years, he had to get a regular job. Now Art [Cruz, drums] and Jason [Christopher, bass] have been around for a couple of years. I’d love to keep them around, but you never know what happens. Prong doesn’t make extraordinary amounts of money and it’s something that I take day by day.”
Nevertheless, throughout all this reshuffling, Victor’s driving presence makes it all cohere under the Prong banner.
“My guitar playing is Tommy Victor guitar playing, my vocals are me, so I don’t really worry about comparing to others and competing with other bands anymore. If I’m there, if I’m alive, I can do it – it’s still Prong.”
Ruining Lives out now through SPV/Steamhammer. Catch Prong alongsideSegression atMetro Theatre onWednesday November 19, tickets online.
