PRONG — Carved Into Stone (review)

PRONG — Carved Into Stone album cover Album · 2012 · Groove Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Kingcrimsonprog
One of the absolute best Prong albums is Carved Into Stone. It was released in 2012 by Steve Evetts (Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura, Sick Of It All) on SPV records, and features the bass talents of Tony Campos (Fear Factory, Ministry, Soulfly etc.)

Prong are a really interesting band. They cover a lot of different ground. Early in their career they were a Hardcore Punk band, after that they crossed over into more Thrash teritory. Then they released some seminal Groove Metal albums before going into a much more Industrial direction with some slight Nu Metal overtones. Then they broke up and came back, and went in a few more slight alterations of combinations of all of these styles over their next few albums. Some are more raw, some are more polished, some lean more heavily in one direction, some lean more heavily in another.

The music here, on Carved Into Stone, is terrific. The album opens with two faster ragers, drops into a punkier number and evens out with a mid-paced groover in the spirit of Black Label Society (only with an alternative rock style chorus). This little run is really a mixture of all the different eras of their career. There’s a few moments of industrial flavours here and there. There’s plenty of Pantera, early Machine Head and ’90s Sepultura sounding stuff. There’s tiny little pieces of Fear Factory on the odd occasion. There’s straight up Thrash used sparingly, and moments of punk. It all mashes together smoothly and perfectly both within the songs themselves, and along the album as a whole. It flows really well and all the parts gel together within individual songs.

If you are a new Prong fan, the common consensus is that you should start with their classic 1994 album Cleansing. In my opinion the next place you should go after that is here, Carved Into Stone. I was about to list highlights, but really the aforementioned first five tracks are all absolute must-hears. They show off different parts of the Prong sound. If you wonder if this album is for you then check out any but preferably all of those. ‘Eternal Heat,’ ‘Ammunition’ and ‘Carved Into Stone’ in particular are like three different bands and no one on their own showcases the band fully, yet all of them are absolutely brilliant examples of what Prong do (in part) and really good tunes in and of themselves.

Overall; if you like bands like Fear Factory, Pantera, Machine Head, Pissing Razors or ’90s Sepultura you may seriously want to check out Prong. If you check out Prong you may seriously want to check out Carved Into Stone. It is a very well mixed combination of a few different styles within their arsenal, but what tips it over the edge is the brilliant performances, punchy production, level of consistency and better than usual songs from the band.
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