Prong - Ruining Lives
There's no need for me to bullshit my way around the fact that I bloody love Prong. If my review for their previous album is anything to go by, they're pretty much the defining example when it comes to composing music that's an amalgamation of various styles and influences without making it sound like a whirlwind of shit that was written by a ten year old with delirium tremens. Okay, so that was slightly tasteless and nonsensical... but my point is that earlier in their career, Prong pretty much changed their sound with every single album and still made it sound like Prong; eventually, they started throwing all of the punk, groove, thrash, industrial and borderline pop rock stuff into a giant mixing pot of doom and incorporating all of those sounds on the same album, which worked extraordinarily well on their last two records. However, they seem to have nixed some of those ingredients in favour of a much thrashier approach for the large majority of Ruining Lives... which is by no means a bad thing, but it is a little unexpected.
Straight off the bat, Turnover and The Barriers bring nostalgic recollections of Primitive Origins, Force Fed and Beg to Differ, or tracks such as Ammunition and Eternal Heat from 2012's Carved Into Stone; fast, thrashy and punk-tinged assaults to the senses with some nice lead work and the occasional subtle layer added in for effect. But as the album goes on, it doesn't really seem to change a great deal from that approach - there's nothing here that could be compared to the likes of Rude Awakening, for example. The industrial 'poppy' tracks are mostly absent, which certainly makes the album a little more consistent with it's content, but it also makes it lack a certain something... Carved Into Stone at least had Revenge: Best Served Cold as a single, which was an obvious 'single song' to choose, but it helped to break up the otherwise rather groove and thrash laden record. We still get the occasion chorus or mid section that's reminiscent of such a sound, particularly in but it's perhaps not quite enough... it still works in a different way, and it'll certainly appeal far more to the thrash and punk crowds (a lot of thrash comparisons being made here today!) but longtime Prong fans might possibly find it offputting. It's not a complete detriment to the record because it's still there, but it's not quite as up front as I would have wished it to be - but once again, the flipside to it is that it's mixed in with the faster and heavier stuff a little better, which allows the record to flow a bit more smoothly. I'm not going to use this as an excuse to mark the album down, because frankly, I can't make up my goddamn mind about it. Only further listens will confirm that for me.
So complaints out of the way, we do still get some pretty astounding stuff from Prong here. Though a lot of the album focuses on the snappy and violent tracks with the occasional kickass chorus thrown in, there are a few very good nods towards.. well, for lack of a better phrase, other albums in their catalogue; the eerie cleans in Windows Shut absolutely reek of some of the material from Prove Your Wrong (particularly No Way To Deny It) and Absence of Light may as well have been written and recorded during the sessions for Cleansing - arguably Prong's most successful album - yet they slot into Ruining Lives seamlessly while still managing to be a bit different. I like how they've been a little more subtle with their previous sound/s here, instead of doing what a lot of similar artists would do and just kind of go "Hey, remember this album?" and drop in a half-hearted and poorly written attempt to recapture the sound from a previous (read: superior) album. Prong don't fuck around with that stuff, they blend it in effortlessly. Tommy Victor is on top form as usual with both his composition and his songwriting, and it's great to hear some material more akin to the very early Prong albums while still keeping it fresh and interesting enough to remain relevant.
So despite my slightly conflicting opinion over the so-called 'radio friendly' sounds not being quite as openly exposed as they were on the last two albums, I think it's safe to say that Ruining Lives is easily my favourite album of 2014 so far; it's definitely going to bring in some new fans for the band and it's a further testament to the fact that Tommy Victor is the reigning king of songwriting. The digipak edition of the album has two bonus tracks, which I sadly dont have at my disposal, but once I've bought said digipak I'll be sure to return to this review and give my thoughts on them - if the bulk of the record is anything to go by, they'll be just as fucking great.
Ruining Lives shouldn't be sniffed at. It's a glorious piece of work and one of Prong's best releases to date.
Straight off the bat, Turnover and The Barriers bring nostalgic recollections of Primitive Origins, Force Fed and Beg to Differ, or tracks such as Ammunition and Eternal Heat from 2012's Carved Into Stone; fast, thrashy and punk-tinged assaults to the senses with some nice lead work and the occasional subtle layer added in for effect. But as the album goes on, it doesn't really seem to change a great deal from that approach - there's nothing here that could be compared to the likes of Rude Awakening, for example. The industrial 'poppy' tracks are mostly absent, which certainly makes the album a little more consistent with it's content, but it also makes it lack a certain something... Carved Into Stone at least had Revenge: Best Served Cold as a single, which was an obvious 'single song' to choose, but it helped to break up the otherwise rather groove and thrash laden record. We still get the occasion chorus or mid section that's reminiscent of such a sound, particularly in but it's perhaps not quite enough... it still works in a different way, and it'll certainly appeal far more to the thrash and punk crowds (a lot of thrash comparisons being made here today!) but longtime Prong fans might possibly find it offputting. It's not a complete detriment to the record because it's still there, but it's not quite as up front as I would have wished it to be - but once again, the flipside to it is that it's mixed in with the faster and heavier stuff a little better, which allows the record to flow a bit more smoothly. I'm not going to use this as an excuse to mark the album down, because frankly, I can't make up my goddamn mind about it. Only further listens will confirm that for me.
So complaints out of the way, we do still get some pretty astounding stuff from Prong here. Though a lot of the album focuses on the snappy and violent tracks with the occasional kickass chorus thrown in, there are a few very good nods towards.. well, for lack of a better phrase, other albums in their catalogue; the eerie cleans in Windows Shut absolutely reek of some of the material from Prove Your Wrong (particularly No Way To Deny It) and Absence of Light may as well have been written and recorded during the sessions for Cleansing - arguably Prong's most successful album - yet they slot into Ruining Lives seamlessly while still managing to be a bit different. I like how they've been a little more subtle with their previous sound/s here, instead of doing what a lot of similar artists would do and just kind of go "Hey, remember this album?" and drop in a half-hearted and poorly written attempt to recapture the sound from a previous (read: superior) album. Prong don't fuck around with that stuff, they blend it in effortlessly. Tommy Victor is on top form as usual with both his composition and his songwriting, and it's great to hear some material more akin to the very early Prong albums while still keeping it fresh and interesting enough to remain relevant.
So despite my slightly conflicting opinion over the so-called 'radio friendly' sounds not being quite as openly exposed as they were on the last two albums, I think it's safe to say that Ruining Lives is easily my favourite album of 2014 so far; it's definitely going to bring in some new fans for the band and it's a further testament to the fact that Tommy Victor is the reigning king of songwriting. The digipak edition of the album has two bonus tracks, which I sadly dont have at my disposal, but once I've bought said digipak I'll be sure to return to this review and give my thoughts on them - if the bulk of the record is anything to go by, they'll be just as fucking great.
Ruining Lives shouldn't be sniffed at. It's a glorious piece of work and one of Prong's best releases to date.
1. Turnover
2. The Barriers
3. Windows Shut
4. Remove, Separate Self
5. Ruining Lives
6. Absence Of Light
7. The Book Of Change
8. Self Will Not Riot
9. Come To Realize
10. Chamber Of Thought
11. Limitations And Validations
2. The Barriers
3. Windows Shut
4. Remove, Separate Self
5. Ruining Lives
6. Absence Of Light
7. The Book Of Change
8. Self Will Not Riot
9. Come To Realize
10. Chamber Of Thought
11. Limitations And Validations
Label: http://www.spv.de
Reviewer: Dave Ingram Jr.
Apr 23, 2014
Apr 23, 2014
Next review:
Expulsion - Certain Corpses Never Decay
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