Prong: Rude Awakening

Well, while we are on the topic of Prong, I thought I would talk about my favorite Prong album... "Rude Awakening"... why do I like this album, well... first of all... the first time I saw this album, was in a music store in Saskatoon, SK... I saw it, and I thought the cover artwork looked cool! There was no doubt in my mind that this album was going to be excellent... If I'm not mistaken, I think I first heard and saw the video for the song "Rude Awakening" at some point after I had moved into a step-dad figure's house in Saskatoon (1996 or 97). I found out soon after that it was directed by Rob Zombie, who is also a favorite artist of mine! It wasn't until years later that I would pick it up digitally (wish I actually picked up the physical, cause I would've loved to have the booklet and all that shit)! This album really stands out for me cause, it was very angsty, very dark, they were going in a more industrial metal direction... more so than their previous efforts, I feel this album was probably their best! I love the way the guitars sound, the bass in it is nice and chunky, everything is down-tuned... It had all the industrial tropes for the time, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand... Tommy Victors trademark voice. If you read our last blog, you would know that we really love the guitar sounds that Tommy has produced over the years... especially the dissonant chords and such! I think my favorite song off this album is "Rude Awakening", it sounds soo dissonant, and Tommy fuckin howls out the lyrics... yeah, love this song!

(Rude Awakening)

(Caprice)

For a crossover band, they are definitely, excellent! I would love to see them live at some point!

Prong: Why I like 'em...

Well, here's a band I've been into since my mid teens... I think the first album I heard of their's was "Cleansing", of course the first song I heard was "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck", matter of fact, I probably saw the video for "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" before actually listening to the album. The one thing I noticed and remembered from this album, is they really had a semi-thrash kind of sound mixed with a darker feel. Something I didn't realize until my adult years, was that Prong, maybe not in their early days, was influenced by darker, industrial sounds... they started to add samples and synths and such to their albums (around the "Prove You Wrong" era), and the "Cleansing" album was definitely influenced by industrial metal (I loved this album as a teenager)... and then they would carry on and go deeper into the dark angsty industrial metal sound with their album "Rude Awakening" which is probably my favorite album by them. I just love the way it sounds... so dissonant and so bleak. The main man, Tommy Victor (vocals and guitars) would end up working with Danzig as a live guitarist, and eventually as a co-writer on an album (You can see him in the Danzig video "Sacrifice"), Tommy Victor would also end up falling into the Ministry camp with Al Jourgensen as a live guitarist as well as a co-writer on "Rio Grande Blood" and "The Last Sucker". 

(Who's Fist Is This Anyway?)

Why do I like Prong..? They've always been on the periphery of industrial music, and Tommy Victor has influenced a lot of bands in the scene... granted they may not be the most popular band in the industrial scene... but they've always kinda been doing something in the background, whether it was releasing their own albums, or Tommy playing roles in Danzig, or Ministry... they were even influenced by post-punk band Killing Joke... I know a lot of folks may not consider them a part of our scene, but I really do think they belong there at least as a crossover band... like I said, they've always been on the periphery. They've even influenced our own sound in the past... I love their guitars, not really sure how to describe them... they're kind of dissonant, and when you hear a Prong song, you know it's Prong, just for the sheer fact that they kind of have their own sound, and Tommy Victor's trademark vocals! Yeah, even though Prong is more on the industrial music periphery, and they are more of a crossover band, I do like their sound and darkness!

(Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck)

Would you fit Prong in the scene? Where do they land on your periphery?

Here's our latest mixtape: "Here My Army Comes... Yeah, Fuck It... Let's Go!!"

Skinny Puppy: The Process

Well, I'm listening to an older Skinny Puppy album called "The Process" today, and I absolutely love this album! I started listening to again recently, and I just love the way this album sounds... not just musically, but the production and sound design that went into it. This album certainly sounds different than all their previous efforts... If you haven't followed Skinny Puppy for very long and you're interested in their history, you can find the wiki here! I will touch a little upon this album... Ogre and Cevin Key, and Dwayne Goettel were fighting with each other, Ogre was trying to stay clean, and get off drugs, and from my understanding Cevin Key and Dwayne were using drugs excessively, which made the process recording it very long... which in turn their label at the time, reduced their contract of three albums to only one. A lot of the process of recording was plagued with fires, and floods as well. Ogre moved to L.A. in this period and was finishing up "The Process"... then eventually Goettel and Key went back to Vancouver with the master tapes... and Ogre quit the band... it was a couple months later that Dwayne Goettel died of a heroin overdose. Eventually, the album would be released... and dedicated in the memory of Dwayne Goettel. The circumstances surrounding the album are very sad, this would be Skinny Puppy's last album, until they rejoined forces in Dresden a few years later... I do love this album, just for the sheer fact that it sounded soo different than their previous efforts... the production and song structures, it is definitely more accessible than their previous efforts, and probably their most "poppy" endeavour to date! This was either the second Skinny Puppy album I picked up or the third... I remember popping it into the disc player and listening to it for the very first time and being surprised by the way it sounded... it sounded soo much different than "Brap 3 + 4"... at first I wasn't sure what to make of it... but listening to it now, I realized I really do love this album, it may not be my favorite Skinny Puppy album, but, if I haven't said this enough, it sounds soo different than their previous efforts, that it really stands out as something different for me!

Here's "Hardset Heat" off of "The Process":

and here's "Jahya" off of "The Process"

What do you think of "The Process"?

Here we are adding some patches to some combat military fatigues, and here is our stage outfit so far:

Highly Experimental Music Video for Twitch single "Yeah, Fuck It... Let's Go!!"

Here's a highly experimental music video that we created for the song "Yeah, Fuck It... Let's Go!!":

Atari Teenage Riot: Why I like them!

Yeah, if you've been in the scene for a while, you may know of a band called Atari Teenage Riot. Granted they aren't exactly industrial, they call the genre of music they create Digital Hardcore... which funnily sounds like a mixture of hardcore punk, and hardcore techno mixed together. I would say they step into the industrial realm slightly though, there are definitely industrial elements in the music. I first came across them in 1997 when a former band member introduced them to me... as his own music was inspired by ATR. I eventually found their album "Burn, Berlin, Burn!" in a record store in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan here in Canada. Atari Teenage Riot started in 1992 in Berlin, Germany. They took their name from a Portuguese Joe song called "Teenage Riot" and added 'Atari' to it, as they used an Atari ST computer to compose songs. Their tracks are highly political, with a very anarchist and anti-facist view. They were and still are quite chaotic and noisey, their songs at least in the beginning, mixed hardcore techno with breaks screamed vocals, and sampled guitars and shit... funnily enough, if I'm not mistaken they sampled Slayer, The Sex Pistols, Nirvana, and all sorts of other bands!

I think the one thing that stood out for me was the screamed vocals, and general chaos with the songs... there is song structure, but I feel like the way things were written and sampled it came out really chaotic... which I really liked! Also, their shit has become more and more pertinent with what's going on in the world politically. They have started riots with their performances! Years and years later, seeing their performances (on Youtube), and how they put together their live show, I find really inspiring! When I was writing the first Twitch album one of the songs I wrote on that album I exclusively sampled one of their songs... not gonna tell you which song, not sure you would recognize the sample I used anyway, as I pitch-shifted it and distorted the fuck out of it!! If you are curious, here's the album:


(And hey, this album is free... so fuckin download it!)

Over the years, Atari Teenage Riot, has remained relevant, and still very politically charged! They came to our city (Calgary) at one point, I could of gone to that show... and now I kind of regret not going, I would love it if they came back... as it would be amazing to see them live!
Are you folks into ATR? If so, why do you like them?