Prong - Ruining Lives

(CD Album Review)

****
The almighty Prong return!

Prong's recorded output since their reunion or reactivating since Tommy is the sole original member got off to a rocky start with the slightly disjointed 'Scorpio Rising' but hit a winning streak with 2007's 'Power of the Damager'. It was on that album Tommy Victor really found his fire again following hotly from that 2012's 'Carved into Stone' which I regard as Prong's finest album to date. Their classic material is regarded classic for a reason but on that album everything great about Prong was in full force. Since 'Power of the Damager' it feels Prong have got all the experimentation out of their system and are now aware of what works and what doesn't and concentrated solely on that.

'Ruining Lives' carries on that tradition and you can see from the start that the band are still on fire. This is the shortest gap between albums of only two years since back in the 80's. Only one track here goes over the four minute mark, it's a no nonsense straight ahead album. Each track does what it has to before blasting to the next track with the hooky choruses of 'Remove, Separate Yourself' and 'Absence of Light' to the crunching riff's of 'Turnover' and the shredding on 'The Book of Change' to the mid paced dark title track. It's all here on this new outing!

Where 'Carved into Stone' excelled in Prong's more accessible side you could compare it to 'Cleaning' or 'Rude Awakening' this album brings to mind Prong excelling in their heavier side so this closer to 'Beg to Differ' which you prefer is down to you as no two people share the same favorite Prong album. That's what makes them so great! I originally would have said this album isn't quite as good a 'Carved into Stone' but that's no bad thing as that album is a classic but every time I listen to this I like it more and more so time will tell. In the meantime it's Prong! what are you waiting for?