Cleansing
| Cleansing | ||||
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| Studio album by Prong | ||||
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Publication |
January 1994 |
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| Label (s) | Epic Records | |||
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running time |
58:02 |
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| occupation |
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Terry Date , Prong |
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Studio (s) |
The Magic Shop, Bad Animals, Electric Lady, New York City |
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Cleansing is the fifth studio album by the American hardcore / metal band Prong . It was released on Epic Records in January 1994 .
Origin and style of music
With Cleansing , the band opened up their groovy metal riffs style further and supplemented it with synthesizer effects and in parts, especially with Whose Fist Is This Anyway and Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck danceable rhythms. An important influence is Killing Joke , whose former bassist Paul Raven joined the band for Troy Gregory, who suffered from health problems. In addition, a keyboardist, John Bechdel, was brought into the band, who also performed live. Tommy Victor said that as a trio you were a bit “limited”. Raven had already mixed some songs as remix versions on the previous EP Whose Fist Is This Anyway , which only had the name in common with the song of the same name on Cleansing . He had previously played for the band Pigface and had left Prong a message on the wall of a backstage room to contact him. The band had 35 songs available, but when making the selection, Raven pleaded for those that were harder than Killing Joke. After the album was released, the band went on the US Cleansing tour with Clutch and Drown, and toured Europe with the supporting bands Life of Agony and The Obsessed .
Texts
The album title comes from the song Another Worldly Device . This is about thoughts, ideas, drugs that prevent a person from focusing on the essentials. Home Rule criticizes the mentality of people, such as street gangs, to orientate themselves on belonging to ethnic groups.
reception
The single Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck developed into a club hit, the song was also covered several times, for example by Dry Kill Logic , Demon Hunter or Six Feet Under . In Germany, the local Sony offshoot was a remix EP of cover versions German shortly after the album release at the instigation Techno - DJs published. These included Thomas P. Heckmann , G 104 alias Cem Oral and Atom Heart alias Uwe Schmidt .
Holger Stratmann from Rock Hard called the "groove machine" Prong on Cleansing "better oiled" than before. He compared Another Worldly Device with Pantera , but also emphasized the “cool melodies” on the “B-side”, where he also localized “a few minor weaknesses”. He awarded nine out of ten points. Together with Metal Churchs Hanging in the Balance, the album took first place on the magazine's monthly "Richter Scale". Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic wrote that the slight techno and industrial influences only strengthened the metallic side of the band. Cleansing is the most varied and best record of Prong so far. Four and a half stars out of five and the “AMG Album Pick” award were given.
Track list
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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- Another Worldly Device - 3:23
- Whose Fist is this Anyway? - 4:42
- Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck - 4:11
- Cut rate - 4:52
- Broken Peace - 6:11
- One Outnumbered - 4:58
- Out of this Misery - 4:25
- No Question - 4:17
- Not of this Earth - 6:25
- Home Rule - 3:57
- Sublime - 3:53
- Test - 6:40
Artwork
The album featured a very reduced, gray cover design with an animal eye next to a bent fork with three prongs on a newspaper page with obituaries. The band deliberately refrained from printing the lyrics so that the listener could make their own thoughts. Instead, a fake advertisement for other Sony albums by Tammy Wynette , Benny Goodman , Doris Day , Donovan or Neil Diamond was placed in the booklet, between which the covers of earlier Prong albums were placed.