(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

Prong were one of the most important bands who attempted the fusion of heavy metal and hardcore. Their influence on the "progressive" heavy metal of Sepultura and Helmet was enormous, especially for their exaggerated concept of "groove," even though none of their songs became historical hits.

Prong formed in 1985 and came from the same Lower East Side New York milieu that nurtured the first new wave: Tommy Victor, singer, guitarist, and leader, worked as a sound technician at CBGB's, and it was in that club that he met the bouncer Mike Kirkland, later the band's bassist, and Ted Parsons, who played drums for every band without a drummer.

On Primitive Origins (Mr Bear, 1987), the legacy of hardcore and speed metal is still strong, giving rise to vehement, hyper-kinetic tracks like Disbelief and Denial; but the brutal riffs and powerful cadences of Watching and especially In My Veins, as well as the staggering rhythm, complex dynamics, and dizzying solos of Dreams Like That, reveal originality and technical skill well above the genre’s average. The album’s masterpiece is the instrumental Persecution, perhaps their pinnacle, a kind of galactic blues à la Led Zeppelin adapted to the Metallica era.
The acrobatic Parsons guides the music through rhythm like a jazz drummer, while Victor derails his guitar with chords drawing on the boldest innovations of Hendrix and Reid, and more generally from all "black" guitar playing. The album was enthusiastically received by critics, who saw in Prong the first "intellectual" band of the barbaric, uncivilized speed metal crowd.

The second album, Force Fed (Spigot), ranked as a major release of 1988. Alongside conventional barrages (Freezer Burn, Decay) and gallops (Aggravated Condition), the power trio also performs a series of experimental tracks that constitute the true innovation of the album (and the genre as a whole): Senseless Abuse opens with majestic, thunderous riffs reminiscent of Black Sabbath; the title track unfolds in agonizing spasms, constantly changing tempo; Primitive Origins, with its android-like rhythm and irregular cadence, borders on "industrial" music, and its instrumental coda is one of the most devastating of their career.
Almost every track features some ingenious harmonic trick. Even if they don’t match Persecution, the two instrumentals, Coliseum and It's Been Decided, highlight a strange stylistic hybrid between Black Sabbath, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, and Chrome. The album’s high points are Look Up At The Sun, surprisingly psychedelic halfway between Hendrix and the Stooges, and Bought and Sold, driven by a syncopated riff and the empty phrases of cannibalistic vocals.

Beg To Differ (Epic, 1990) refines the form of those vibrant tirades with a more careful production. Even if the sound is somewhat slowed down, the overall effect is far from “humanized”: Beg to Differ might actually be their most challenging, most “anti-pop” album. More room is given to instrumental sections, harmonies are more complex, and the songs are better developed. All their art of stifled speed, irregular chords, and skewed structures is put in the service of a measured maturity.
Compared to the past, there is a noticeable influence of the Clash, inspiring at least Steady Decline, Right To Nothing, and Lost and Found (choral slogans, hints of black music). Prime Cut is perhaps the most experimental track, tinged with dissonance and sudden tempo changes, in a spirit that feels more cabaret than heavy metal. Intermenstrual is the instrumental monolith of the moment, a worthy heir to Persecution. The highlights, however, are For Dear Life, an imposing wall of riffs and sinister declamations, and the title track, where a “heavy” Black Sabbath-like figure merges with stormy, industrial-like syncopations.

The evolution toward heterodox sounds, with injections of alien elements, continues on Prove You Wrong (Epic, 1991), with Troy Gregory (ex-Flotsam And Jetsam) replacing Kirkland, but the album comes across as sloppy and mediocre due to a rushed and approximate recording. Irrelevant Thoughts, Hell If I Could, Unconditional, and the title track save the album, and Shouldn't Have Bothered introduces a touch of funky tribalism, yet they fail to make it a landmark work, as the previous albums had been.

The culmination of this “industrial speed metal” is the 1992 EP Whose Fist Is This Anyway?, where prestigious figures like Jim Thirlwell and Paul Raven remix some of the band’s tracks, bringing to the forefront the true “dance-metal” vocation of Prove You Wrong.

Cleansing (Epic, 1994) features the band without Gregory, replaced by Paul Raven (ex-Killing Joke and ex-Pigface), and with John Bechdel handling sampling (ex-Murder Inc and Killing Joke). Inevitably, the influence of Killing Joke is felt throughout the album, particularly on Broken Piece, the centerpiece track.
The album is also one of their "heaviest", exemplified by the stratospheric blasts of Whose Fist Is This Anyway, with touches of ZZ Top-style electronic boogie and some of the most discreet and creative electronic noises; yet it is also one of their most varied: the band’s traditional sound (Another Worldy Device) gives way to Ministry-like nightmares (the hammering rhythm and guitar barrages of Snap Your Fingers Snap Your Neck, a masterpiece of this period), a new form of tension overload (Out Of This Misery effectively invents a new idiom within their style), a personal take on the “power ballad” (Not This Earth, with Joy Division-like inflections), and industrial-infused experiments (the filtered and doubled drum sound on Home Rule).
Less original but equally varied is the spectrum of references, from Deep Purple (Cut-Rate) to Led Zeppelin (One Outnumbered), with even a fashionable “noise-pop” relic like Sublime. For better or worse, it is a cornucopia of new sounds. The rhythm remains monumental, with Parsons ruling over all. The electronics are never intrusive, but calculated and held in reserve. Whereas the previous album had been somewhat haphazard, this one is meticulous in every detail. It is the true successor to Force Fed and represents their most balanced and mature record.

From the beginning, Prong had been a key band in the renewal of the “hard” and radical genres of rock. Parsons, in particular, is one of the most original drummers around, among the first to restore dignity to rhythm within the power-trio format.