Album Review: Prong - Live and Uncleansed
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Formed back in 1986, when guitarist/ vocalist – and sole remaining member - Tommy Victor was a sound engineer at New York’s GBGBs, recruiting club doorman, Mike Kirkland to play bass, and ex-Swans drummer, Ted Parsons and issuing their Primitive Origins EP and Force Fed full-length debut before the Eighties ended.
Even back then, Prong was always at the forefront of experimentation which would later explode into ‘The Next Big Thing’. Starting as a crossover thrash outfit, before introducing groove on to their 1990 record, Beg to Differ, way before Groove Metal broke into the mainstream.
Alternative and industrial aspects had been introduced by the time the fourth record, Cleansing was released in 1994, as Prong found themselves touring with Sepultura and Pantera, two of the era’s most powerful metal acts. Reportedly eschewing the early thrash influences for this one, Tommy cites The Sisters of Mercy as being an inspiration.
The follow-up record, Rude Awakening would repeat the sound, before the band took a hiatus in 1996, with Tommy joining Glenn Danzig’s band - and later Ministry – before Prong’s return.
Albums released since the reconstitution have found Prong reconciling themselves with their trash roots and have successfully blended all influences on the likes of Carved into Stone, Ruining Lives and, most recently, 2023’s State of Emergency.
In the summer of 2025, Prong – Tommy, with bassist Christopher Dean and drummer Tyler Joseph – headed out across Europe, well-rehearsed, and with recording equipment at the ready, to celebrate thirty-one[!] years of the Cleansing album; the result is this hour-long treat, Live & Uncleansed, in which Prong can be heard at the top of their collective game, blasting through album highlights and tracks from various other parts of their history.
There’s no atmosphere-building intro here, only feedback and Tommy announcing he likes his revenge best served cold; his guitar is fat, the drums booming and the riff beguiling for the earworm that is Revenge… Best Served Cold from the Carved into Stone record. We get all manner of additional guitar accoutrements and flourishes, without once disrupting the dynamism. Found on the Airheads’ soundtrack, Inheritance is heavier and darker, showing another side to the band. The Descent is the newest and most urgent of tunes, finding Tommy putting both his vocal cords and guitar strings through their paces.
We’re three tracks in before Cleansing gets any attention. One Outnumbered opens with a soundbite stating how fractured American society has become – odd how somethings don’t change – before becoming lush and hypnotic; No Question follows and both are imbued with Nineties Alternative vibes. The same could be said of Not of this Earth and Home Rule, which each have sounds that remind me of The Smashing Pumpkins and Helmet respectively. Sublime is pure bouncing groove and, listening to these five tracks back-to-back it’s easy to forget just how progressive and forward-thinking Prong really was.
The heaviness returns with 2016 album, X: No Absolutes’ opener, Ultimate Authority, which goes a long way to capture the sheer energy of a live Prong show. Cleansing’s lead single, the anthemic Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck has a massive bass intro as Tommy invites chaos through crunching riffs. The first verse is to ease the audience in, but there’s no compassion shown as the chorus hits heavily. Considering Prong is a three-piece, the sound is immense on this one.
Still wanting more, the set ends with Zero Days’ However It May End, which harkens back to the band’s early crossover direction. Raw and pummelling, even on record, by this point it’s clear Prong have battered their crowd into submission.
But mercy is for the weak – or so I learnt from Cobra Kai – and Prong haven’t finished with their audience quite yet. The equally Helmet-like deep cut, Out of this Misery, feels as though it needs more attention; Broken Peace B-side, Corpus Delecti lets us know we’ve missed out on a gem of a tune; and no Prong show is complete without Whose Fist Is This Anyway? Imagine Sabbath not doing Paranoid – I know, unthinkable!
Recorded across a hectic week last summer, at venues and festivals in Germany and the low countries, Live & Uncleansed serves as a reminder that Prong is, and always has been, a devastating live band. Their musical output has been ahead of the curve much of the time, often to their disadvantage, with other artist taking influence from them and being lauded as scene-leaders.
Such is life, I suppose, but if you’ve not listened to Prong in a while or, heaven forbid, at all, Live & Uncleansed is a fine way to introduce or reintroduce yourself to one of the most inventive bands of the genre.
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