Prong is an American heavy metal band formed in New York City in 1986. The band is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Tommy Victor, Prong's sole constant member. To date, they have released 13 studio albums (including a covers album), one live album, four EPs, one DVD and one remix album.
Prong had two independent releases, Primitive Origins (1987) and Force Fed (1988), which attracted the attention of Epic Records, who signed the band in 1989. Their first two albums on Epic, Beg to Differ (1990) and Prove You Wrong (1991), were released to critical acclaim and garnered attention on MTV's Headbangers Ball. and included their best-known song, "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck". After releasing one more album (Rude Awakening in 1996), Prong disbanded in 1997, but reformed in 2002 and has continued to tour and record since then.
History
Early days (1986–1988)
The band was founded in 1986 by singer/guitarist Tommy Victor (then a sound engineer for the New York City music club CBGB) and bassist Mike Kirkland (doorman at CBGB), who recruited ex-Swans drummer Ted Parsons shortly after. Their major label debut album, Beg to Differ, was released in 1990.
In the following year, Kirkland left the band and was replaced by bassist Troy Gregory. Prong issued their fourth release, Prove You Wrong, which saw the band experiment with programming and electronic samples while still retaining an aggressive yet melodic sensibility.
By 1993, Troy Gregory was out of the band and was replaced by Paul Raven and John Bechdel, both from Killing Joke and Murder, Inc. and sold 10,000 units in the United States in its first week. Despite the good sales, Epic Records released the band from their contract three weeks after the album's release. Shortly thereafter, Raven left prior to a tour supporting Type O Negative and was replaced by Rob "Blasko" Nicholson. Mike Riggs later joined on guitar so Victor could focus more on vocals. This line-up later disbanded, with Victor joining Danzig as their guitar player,
Rossi joined Ministry as their new drummer on the "C U LaTour" which started in March 2008.
Alexei Rodriguez and Tony Campos from Static-X were on the lineup with Tommy supporting Soulfly on the "Blood Fire War Hate" tour in the fall of 2009. They were replaced by Jason Christopher (bass) in 2011 and Art Cruz (drums) in 2012.
The band supported Fear Factory on their tour which ended on June 6, 2010. Prong released a new album, Carved into Stone, on April 23, 2012, with Long Branch Records/SPV. It was produced by Steve Evetts. The band toured as a headliner and with acts such as Crowbar in the US, and in May 2012 performed Beg to Differ in its entirety during a two-week tour in Europe.
In the summer of 2013, the band performed an extensive European festival and headline run and also recorded a self-released "Official Bootleg" entitled Unleashed in the West – Live in Berlin via Bandcamp.com.
After spending November and December 2013 in the studio, Prong released their ninth album, Ruining Lives, on Steamhammer/SPV in April 2014 and toured extensively in its support. Blabbermouth.net called the album "Tommy Victor's personal liberation." The album was produced by Victor and mixed by Steve Evetts.
The band started a second wave of touring behind Ruining Lives in July 2014, with European festivals and headline shows. They also toured in North America, both as headliners and as support to Overkill, followed by a tour in Europe as main support to Overkill in October and November.
In 2015, the band released the cover album Songs from the Black Hole, followed a year later by their eleventh studio album X – No Absolutes. Another album, Zero Days, was released in 2017. In 2017, at the beginning of August, they played a concert in Polish Woodstock Festival. Prong's next release was the EP Age of Defiance, released on November 29, 2019.
The band's thirteenth studio album, State of Emergency, was released on October 6, 2023.
Musical style, influences and legacy
Prong has been described as groove metal, industrial metal, and thrash metal, Bad Brains, Killing Joke, Metallica, Warzone, the Cro-Mags, Die Kreuzen, and the Sisters of Mercy. as well as bands such as Pantera and White Zombie.
Members
Current members
{| class="wikitable" border="1" width="100%"
! width="75" |Image
! width="150" |Name
! width="160" |Years active
! width="170" |Instruments
!Release contributions
|-
|
|Tommy Victor
|1986–present
|
|all releases
|-
|
|Christopher Dean
|Rowspan="2"|2023–present
|
|Rowspan="2"|Live and Uncleansed (2026)
|-
|
|Tyler Bogliole
|drums
|}
Former members
{| class="wikitable" border="1" width="100%"
! width="75" |Image
! width="150" |Name
! width="160" |Years active
! width="170" |Instruments
!Release contributions
|-
|
|Ted Parsons
|1986–1996
|
|all releases from Primitive Origins (1987) to Rude Awakening (1996)
|-
|
|Mike Kirkland
|1986–1991
| rowspan="2" |
|all releases from Primitive Origins (1987) to Live at CBGB's (1990)
|-
|
|Troy Gregory
|1991–1993
|
|-
|
|Paul Raven
|1993–1996
|bass
|
|-
|
|John Bechdel
|1993–1995
| rowspan="2" |
|
|-
|
|Charlie Clouser
|1995–1996
|Rude Awakening (1996)
|-
|
|Mike Riggs
|1996–1997
|guitars
| rowspan="4" |none
|-
|
|Rob "Blasko" Nicholson
|1996
| rowspan="2" |bass
|-
|
|Frank Cavanagh
| rowspan="2" |1997
|-
|
|John Tempesta
| rowspan="2" |drums
|-
|
|Dan Laudo
|2002–2005
|
|-
|
|Brian Perry
|2002–2003
|bass
|
|-
|
|Monte Pittman
|2002–2009
|
|all releases from 100% Live (2002) to Power of the Damn Mixxxer (2009)
|-
|
|Mike Longworth
|
|
|
|-
|
|Aaron Rossi
|
|drums
|
|-
|
|Tony Campos
|2009–2012
|
|Carved into Stone (2012)
|-
|
|Alexei Rodriguez
|2009–2013
|
|
|-
|
|Art Cruz
|2014–2018
| rowspan="2" |drums
|
|-
|
|Griffin McCarthy
|2022–2023
|State of Emergency (2023)
|-
|
|Jason Christopher
|
|
|
|}
Live musicians
{| class="wikitable" border="1" width="100%"
! width="75" |Image
! width="150" |Name
! width="160" |Years active
! width="170" |Instruments
!Notes
|-
|
|Joseph Bishara
|1994
|keyboards
|Bishara briefly toured with the band.
|-
|
|Vince Dennis
|1996
| rowspan="3" |bass
|Dennis covered for Paul Raven when the bassist injured himself.
|-
|
|Matthew Brunson
| rowspan="2" |2012
| rowspan="2" |Brunson and Pybus covered for Tony Campos who was touring with Soulfly.
|-
|
|Dave Pybus
|-
|
|Fred Ziomek
|2019–2020
|
|Ziomek toured with the band in 2019 and 2020.
|-
|
|Jason Bittner
|2023
| rowspan="2" |drums
|Bittner covered for Griffin McCarthy who had other commitments in 2023.
|-
|}
Timeline
Discography
<!-- Studio albums only, therefore do not add other releases such as "Primitive Origins", "100% Live" or "Power of the Damn Mixxxer". -->
- Force Fed (1988)
- Beg to Differ (1990)
- Prove You Wrong (1991)
- Cleansing (1994)
- Rude Awakening (1996)
- Scorpio Rising (2003)
- Power of the Damager (2007)
- Carved into Stone (2012)
- Ruining Lives (2014)
- Songs from the Black Hole (2015)
- X – No Absolutes (2016)
- Zero Days (2017)
- State of Emergency (2023)