Prong has, since their 1990 Beg To Differ, along with Helmet, been a favourite band of mine in “alternative” metal, creating a very distinctive sound and interesting beats, riffs and structures. Their album Scorpio Rising disappointed me quite a lot, but the Power Of The Damager album that followed luckily brought some of the well known and typical Prong-sound and –feel back.

As the album title of this one suggests, this is a remixed version of their latest album, which, according to only remaining original member Tommy Victor, didn’t reach quite the attention he had hoped for. “So let’s invite a lot of musical fellows to do each their version/remix of a song, and then we can re-issue the stuff, without it being the same“ the thought seems to have been. Normally I’m not at all into remakes or remixes of already known songs, unless they bring something new and interesting to it (and most of those I’ve heard doesn’t in my opinion) – and if you top that with, to my ears, f***in’ annoying club beats, my cup is full, so to speak.

Well, if I set aside my idiosyncrasy against the DJ-mix-sound, I must admit, that some of the songs work okay (for ex. #3), keeping the original Prong-sound, and then twisting the song to something a bit different, but then again, some of them (for ex. #5) has also turned out pretty awful, dragging on without getting anywhere and/or having been added some terrible DJ-rhythmbox sounds (eeedr!), and reassures me in my opinion, that such remixes certainly not are for anything that has to do with metal. My message would be: If you don’t have a strong idea what to do with the material, leave it alone!

Fans of Prong who hasn’t heard this one yet, and lovers of  the style of for ex. Ministry, could take a listen. Personally I haven’t come to agree with this album, even though I’ve given it several shots – I clearly prefer the original.