Prong are back with some new material but it’s just a teaser in the form of an EP release titled “Age Of Defiance”. Considering the quality of recent albums, an EP release just isn’t enough Prong for our money but we’ll take what we can get. With 2 new tracks on offer plus a couple of classics done live, it’s as good as it gets for now.
So let’s jump into the new tracks “Age of Defiance” and “End Of Sanity“, two very different tracks from one another with the latter being written with their US tour with Agnostic Front in mind. Because of that there’s a hardcore thrashy feel about the song and out of the newbie tracks here, this is the strongest.
The title track however is a little different to what Prong are traditionally known for. It’s dark, melodic and has a slow moving groove that gets the head bopping just enough. Is it a signal to what may come on the next full release? Possibly but knowing Prong’s track record, there will most likely be much more on offer as they tend to diversify quite a bit. Still it’s a fairly solid song for what it is.
The final 3 tracks are live recordings, taken from a show in Berlin in 2015. What’s interesting to note on these recordings are the lack of crowd noise or the live atmosphere that normally comes from a live recording. Instead it’s a very clean soundboard quality recording that almost sounds in-studio and while there’s something to be said about the closeness to the originals they play to as well as how tight the performance is, it almost seems to defeat the purpose of a live recording. In saying that, I’ve always been a sucker for these types of live recordings and all those years of bootleg collecting made these types of audio real gems.
Of course the three tracks – the casual “Rude Awakening“, the energetic “Another Worldly Device” and the technically sounding “Cut Rate” are all brilliant tracks that are staples in the band’s setlist and all considered some of their best over the years.
“Age of Defiance” is a nice little EP but after 2017’s “Zero Days” album, we are just salivating at the idea of the next full-length.
7/10
TRACKLIST
Age Of Defiance
End Of Sanity
Rude Awakening
Another Worldly Device
Cut Rate
