• Лейбъл: SPV/Steamhammer
• Издаден: 2015
• Aвтор: Стефан Топузов
• Оценка:

In an interview for Decibel magazine, Tommy Victor describes the first time he saw Killing Joke live as a life-changing moment. “That's it! Everybody else sucks!,” he recalls his own thoughts. So it's not surprising that 'Songs from the Black Hole,' the covers album with which PRONG pay homage to their biggest influences, features a Killing Joke song – more so, one which the English post-punk band originally recorded with bassist Paul Raven, who had a long tenure in PRONG as well.

Frankly, there's hardly anything else that's surprising in 'Songs from the Black Hole.' The album is a collection of covers, all quite faithful to the originals, with which PRONG make a deconstruction of sorts of their own sound.

These influences were obvious anyway – listening carefully to the albums leading up to 1991's 'Prove You Wrong' is revealing enough for the shadow of 1980s hardcore, crust and alternative rock in the band's music. Now, it is demonstrated for everyone to see and hear via a bunch of covers of bands like Butthole Surfers, Adolescents, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Fugazi, Sisters of Mercy and Discharge.

Even though the arrangements haven't been tweaked a lot (besides some more double bass drumming, or a solo performed with precision that is out of the reach of the punk-rockers who recorded the originals), the covers do end up sounding unmistakably like PRONG. However, I can't put my finger on whether this is due to Victor and his band putting their stamp on the songs, or because PRONG already sound like those bands in the first place.

What makes the difference, though, is the contemporary metal production which gives the tunes a sonic power, which he primitively recorded originals often lack. The covers of Bad Brains' 'Bars' and Adolescents' 'Kids of the Black Hole' benefit the most from that – while Killing Joke's 'Seeing Red' does so the least, being practically identical to the original. Looking at he tracklist you might think Neil Young's 'Cortez the Killer' is an exception, and you probably expect to read how PRONG triumphed at making it its own. Nope. They just sort of perform it.

Is this a bad thing? Definitely not. Will this album make your jaw drop? Unlikely. It's aim is to deepen PRONG fandom, if such already exists. So if you like this band – congratulations, you're in the black. But otherwise, I doubt 'Songs from the Black Hole' will ignite any strong feelings.