Year: 2023
Total Time: 41.52
Label: Steamhammer
PRONG, or Tony Victor’s personal project (vocals, guitars), has been around since 1986 (with a five-year hiatus in 1997-2002) and has been releasing records since 1988. Anyone who lived through the early-mid 90s will surely remember the super hit “Snap your Fingers, Snap your Neck” which was played in MTV, radios, clubs and everywhere abroad as well as in Greece. In fact, it was a bulwark against the frenzy of Grunge that has haunted everything at that time!
But the years have passed and PRONG currently presents us their 13th full length album entitled “State Of Emergency”, which contains eleven songs, including a cover to the song “Working Man” of RUSH! The style remains as it was back then, i.e. a combination of Hardcore and Thrash Metal influences from the New York scene, with Industrial tones and also a bit of Groove, in the style of PANTERA. Also, for the first time, influences from the latest MINISTRY and KILLING JOKE albums are more than obvious! In fact, the influence from MINISTRY is easily explained since Tony Victor was a member of them for 8 years!
The album begins powerfully with the more-than-awesome “Descent” song (which I consider among the 3 best songs the band has ever written), the equally amazing title track “State Of Emergency” and the stormy “Breaking Point”! The rest of the album also moves at high levels, even if at some places you feel the feeling of repetition in the structures of the compositions and in the guitar riffs as well. Also, I don’t like the RUSH cover at all, but that might be due to my dislike for this particular band…
In summary, the album is considered more than good and is among the best in PRONG’s discography! Maybe, if they put some more keys and samples in the music, the final result would be even better, turning of course to more Industrial forms, but this is a completely personal opinion…
Rating: 7/10
Editor: Dimitris Argyrakis
Related Link: PRONG – Facebook Page
