The times of the early 90’s when every band that was heading down the road to crossover music like Sepultura (with “Chaos A.D.”) or Machine Head would proudly name Prong among their influences have been over for a long time. This band somehow managed to sink in the history archives after their most successful album, “Cleansing”, and the hit that everyone, their mothers and dogs have heard - “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck”. The follow-up “Rude Awakening” was a solid album, but achieved disappointing sales. Then the band broke up, reunited and released a rather mediocre reunion CD. Tommy Victor played with Ministry for a while and the result was two of the band’s most metallized and actually best albums. Now it’s time for Victor’s own band to release a new effort. There’s absolutely no doubt that Tommy equals Prong, just like Max Cavalera equals Soulfly. So… the new release is solid. The sound descends from the industrial influences of previous albums (Tommy probably used all his industrial ideas for Ministry) and returns to Prong’s thrashy sound of albums like “Force Fed” and “Beg to Differ”. At least as songwriting. The guitars are tuned way low and sound like on “Scorpio Rising”. I’d say worse actually. The album is a strong punch in the face anyway. The opening mid-tempo song “Looking for Them” is capable of breaking your spine from all the headbanging it causes, “No Justice”, too (the song actually reminds me of the stuff on “Beg to Differ” with its social lyrics). The title track “Power of the Damager” has a suiting heavy riffage that you can expect from quite a few guitarists. Happily Tommy Victor is among the best super heavy riff machines in the world. Just hear the closing track “Changing Ending Troubling Time” that almost goes death metal at moments. This time around Victor has tried to make the riffs somewhat more melodic. “The Banishment” is a fine example of how much of a good job he’s done. In “Worst of It” his vocals kinda remind you of grandpa Ozzy, which adds an overall old-school vibe to the album. This is pretty much the outline of what the new Prong CD has to offer. I wouldn’t expect anyone who’s already a fan of the band to be disappointed by this album. For those who’ll be introduced to Prong now, it is a nice occasion to hear a band that - along wit Helmet - stands as the basis of the music bands like Machine Head, Sepultura, Static-X, Korn and pretty much every meaningful band of the 90’s have been making.