Prong (band)

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Prong
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Tommy Victor, Monte Pittman and Aaron Rossi, performing live with Prong in Graz, Austria, on January 16, 2008
Background information
Origin New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres
Years active 1986–1997, 2002–present
Labels
Associated acts
Website www.prongmusic.com
Members
Past members

Prong is an American metal band formed in 1986. Prong had two independent releases, Primitive Origins and Force Fed. The albums attracted the attention of Epic Records, who signed the trio in 1989. The group disbanded in 1997 after the Rude Awakening tour, but re-formed in 2002. To date, they have released eight studio albums, one live album, four EPs, one DVD and one remix album. A pioneer of the urban metal scene, Prong is fronted by Tommy Victor. Korn's Jonathan Davis, Demon Hunter's Ryan Clark, and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor all cite Prong as an influence to their musical style.[5][6]

History

Early career (1986–1988)

The band was founded by singer/guitarist Tommy Victor (then a sound engineer for the club CBGB) and bassist Mike Kirkland (doorman at CBGB’s). Ex-Swans drummer Ted Parsons joined a few months later. Prong released an EP[7] Primitive Origins and an album Force Fed that were noted for their brutal hardcore punk sound.[citation needed] The recordings were released on Southern Records in the U.K. and Europe in the late 1980s.

Major label signing and mainstream success (1989–1995)

Epic Records saw the band's potential and signed them in 1989. Prong's major label debut album, Beg to Differ, was released in 1990.

In the following year, Kirkland left the band and was replaced by bassist Troy Gregory. Prong issued their fourth release, with new songwriter William Houston Prove You Wrong, which saw the band experiment with programming and electronic samples while still retaining an aggressive yet melodic sensibility.

By 1994, Troy Gregory was out of the band and was replaced by Paul Raven and John Bechdel, both from Killing Joke and Murder, Inc. The new line up released Cleansing (Prong’s 5th major release). With a slight industrial metal influence, Cleansing contained songs that are still considered Prong classics ("Broken Peace" and "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck") and is Prong’s most successful release to date. The videos for these two songs became staples of MTV’s legendary Headbangers Ball. The band toured America with Sepultura and Pantera as an opener for their Chaos A.D. and Far Beyond Driven tours. They also undertook a headlining European tour with Life of Agony and The Obsessed as their support.

Demise (1996–2000)

Prong's sixth album Rude Awakening was released in 1996. It entered the charts at No. 74 and sold 10,000 units in America in one week. Epic Records decided Prong were not selling enough records and released them from their contract 3 weeks later. Shortly thereafter, Prong's line-up disbanded prior to a tour supporting Type O Negative; Victor later joined Danzig as Glenn's guitar player, and Raven and Parsons left to join Godflesh.

Interim (2000–2006)

In 2000, Victor re-formed Prong with bassist Brian Perry (Jake E. Lee) (Flood), drummer Dan Laudo and guitarist Monte Pittman (Madonna). In 2002, after a 42-show American tour that was recorded for a live CD (100% Live, Locomotive Music) Prong entered the studio and recorded a new CD titled Scorpio Rising which was received with mixed responses.

Victor played on and off again with Glenn Danzig from 1998–2005 in between time with Prong. His final goal of playing and writing on a Danzig record was met with Circle of Snakes in 2004.

Prong released a live 2-disc DVD in 2005 entitled "The Vault" which features performances from the Hulstsfred and With Full Force festivals and a full show in Amsterdam. This disc has Brian Perry and Mike Longworth on bass as Longworth replaced Perry after his departure in 2003. Dan Laudo left the band in 2005 and the band enlisted Aaron Rossi, who used to be in the bands Strife (Victory Records), Shelter (Century Media Records), John 5 (Shrapnel Records), and Ankla (Bieler Bros. Records)

Victor and Raven joined Ministry in 2005 to write and tour in support of their album Rio Grande Blood (2006). They were nominated for a Grammy in 2007 for the song Senior Peligro in the "Best Metal Performance" category. The two also appear on Ministry's follow up album The Last Sucker (2007), although in a more limited capacity.

Reformation (2007-present)

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In 2007, Prong signed to Al Jourgensen's 13th Planet Records, who released Power of the Damager on October 2, 2007. The band embarked on the "Slicing Across America" and "Slicing Across Europe" tours supporting the album in 2007 and early 2008. Joining Tommy Victor for the tour were Monte Pittman and drummer Aaron Rossi; Paul Raven had died of an apparent heart attack in his sleep on October 20, 2007 at the age of 46.

Aaron Rossi joined Ministry as their new drummer on the "C U LaTour" which started in March 2008.

Alexei Rodriguez and Tony Campos from Static-X were on the lineup with Tommy supporting Soulfly on the "Blood Fire War Hate" tour in the fall of 2009. They were replaced by Jason Christopher (bass) in 2011 and Art Cruz (drums) in 2012.

The band supported Fear Factory on their tour which ended on June 6, 2010. Prong released a new album, Carved Into Stone, on April 23, 2012, with Long Branch Records/SPV. It was produced by Steve Evetts. The band toured as a headliner and with acts such as Crowbar in the US and in May 2012 performed Beg to Differ in its entirety during a two-week tour in Europe.[8][9]

In the summer of 2013, the band performed an extensive European festival and headline run and also recorded a self-released "Official Bootleg" entitled "Unleashed In The West - Live in Berlin" via Bandcamp.com.[10]

After spending November and December 2013 in the studio, Prong released their new album Ruining Lives on Steamhammer/SPV in April 2014 and has been relentlessly touring in its support. Blabbermouth.net calls the album "Tommy Victor's personal liberation" [11] The album was produced by Tommy Victor and mixed by Steve Evetts.

The band started a second wave of touring behind Ruining Lives in July 2014, with European festivals and headline shows, a North American tour that sees the band headline and play as main support to Overkill in select markets and a European tour as main support to Overkill in October and November.[12] 2015 the band published the cover album Songs from the Black Hole

Members

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