PRONG — No Absolutes (review)

PRONG — No Absolutes album cover Album · 2016 · Groove Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"No Absolutes" is the 12th full-length studio album by US, New York based groove metal act Prong. The album was released through SPV/Steamhammer in February 2016. With Danzig having laid relatively low for some years (lead vocalist/guitarist Tommy Victor has recorded and toured with Danzig for now many years), band founder and only remaining original member Tommy Victor, bassist Jason Christopher, and drummer Arturo "Art" Cruz, have had a bit more time to concentrate on Prong in recent years, which has resulted in Prong releasing both "Ruining Lives" in 2014 and "Songs from the Black Hole" in 2015. With "No Absolutes" that constitutes a pretty steady release cycle with only one year between the three albums, and while "Songs from the Black Hole" is not an album featuring original material but instead a covers album, it´s still more and more unusual these days to release an album every year.

Stylistically this is Prong as we know them. Sharp groove metal riffs and rythms, Killing Joke influenced atmospheric parts, and Tommy Victor´s raw bark in front (and occasional clean vocals). The music on "No Absolutes" is sligthly more hard edged than the case has been on the last couple of releases though, and Prong even occasionally venture into thrash metal territory on tracks like "Sense of Ease" and "Cut and Dry". It´s a bit out of their comfort zone, and it´s not what they do best, but it´s pretty good for the variation of the album, that they branch out a bit. It´s the meaty, sharp, and groovy guitar riffs and hookladen shouting choruses which are the main focus of the band´s music though, and that works almost to perfection on "No Absolutes". They´ve scaled back a bit on the atmospheric parts, and while those parts are great for the variation of Prong´s music, Prong are best when they deliver their hard edged grooves with bite and aggression. That´s their natural environment, and that´s where they shine the most. The album is not devoid of melodic hooks though and a track like "With Dignity" is so catchy it´s close to mainstream territory.

"No Absolutes" features a very well sounding production. It´s raw, it incredibly powerful, but at the same time both clear and detailed. A perfect match for the material featured on the album. So "No Absolutes" is overall a high quality release by Prong and to my ears one of their better releases in recent years. There are still some pretty standard quality material featured on the 13 track, 44:11 minutes long album too though, which could have been more memorable, and therefore it´s not a 100% perfect release, but a 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved (and maybe even slightly too low).
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Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Good review, I really like this one too. Belief System is probably my favorite from the album.

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