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Rating: The year was 1994. At the time, I spent my days between school, arcades, and record stores. I remember 1994 very well because, during those legendary twelve months, most of the albums that completely changed my concept of music were released. First and foremost, Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral," Machine Head's "Burn My Eyes," the self-titled Korn album, Marilyn Manson's "Portrait of an American Family," and "Youthanasia" by Megadeth. A little later came "Demanufacture" by Fear Factory. That year, it was rare for me to listen to anything else, and perhaps that's why I feel the need to give credit to this work by the Prong, a New York trio already active towards the late '80s.
The band offers a hardcore metal with harsh, hard tones, which at times calls to mind the sounds dear to the more mature Sick of it All. With the guitars placed at the forefront, the use of effects reduced to the bare minimum, a syncopated rhythm section, and a bass with rough tones (at times inappropriate), they create a very interesting work, albeit not particularly varied. The choppy riff of "Another Wordly Device" (a mediocre opening song) introduces us to the anger of "Cleansing," which reaches its peak tension right with the following "Whose Fist is This Anyway?". The bass of "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" is in charge of controlling the instincts, seemingly wanting to lower the hostility, but the guitars enter the scene like sharp blades, and Tommy Victor's hoarse voice suddenly appears less confused, finally surpassing that compact sonic wall to sing his anger against the system, and his social denunciation resolves in the second verse: "expectations of my daily bread gives me the hunger to steal". There is a sudden shift to fast-paced thrash in "Cut Rate," returning to the hardcore of "Broken Peace" and the following tracks.
A track-by-track analysis becomes indeed unnecessary at this point, as the product is quite solid and flows smoothly to the end. Ultimately, this "Cleansing" proves to be a good work, which I probably wouldn't have appreciated in the year of its release, given the fierce competition from bands that, in my opinion, breathed new life into the metal scene in general. Worth listening to today, to forget all the over-used and ill-digested clichés by subsequent generations of musicians (but also the downward spiral that affected my idols of yesterday).
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Another Worldly Device (03:24)
Time for reward
It's been so hard
Just living here
Transcend the self
Remove the sight
Ending the fear
Escape the fault
Widen the gap
Kill off the facts
That are gonna hurt my mind
That are gonna stain my soul
Another worldly device
That may ruin me
That are gonna ruin my goals
That are gonna take its toll
Another worldly device
Another worldly release
Take back myself
From this here self
The Ones that you do
Must hold some truth
To what you should
I will perceive
The will persists
I must omit
What's gonna hurt my mind
What's gonna stain my soul
Another worldly device
That may ruin me
Not gonna block my goals
Not gonna take its toll
Another worldly device
Another worldly device
More wrong advice
Another broken promise
03 Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck (04:12)
Nothing breeds more contempt for this world than the memories now formed
Every moment a new seed is grown. To no reason the trouble unfolds.
For the trials of today, I'm no jury. Really don't care how you feel.
The pleasant notion of miraculous change drifts into multiple jeers...jeers...jeers
You want the good life, you break your back.
You snap your fingers, you snap your neck.
Seconds drip through my hands, washed of moments unborn.
All the spaces between bleed, a tribute to a sacrament never exposed.
A message to the forces. Iv'e no pity, don't know how thankful to feel.
Expectations of my daily bread gives me the hunger to steal.
You want the good life, you break your back.
You snap your fingers, You snap your neck.
Snap your fingers, snap your neck.
04 Cut-rate (04:52)
you try to take all the challenge
out of all of our lives
you make it all too predictable
with your white wash lives you see,
you got to show me the torment
and all the despair
all those bloodless bullet holes
are more than
we can bear
clean sweep
clean sweep
clean sweep
with the plastic coverings
and the cut-rate display
no renewal of the pleasurable
with no image of decay
you go for the stability
and what do you get
some real vivid misfortune
a cause now an effect
clean sweep
clean sweep
clean sweep
05 Broken Peace (06:12)
tell you something clearly
tell you something real
but you tell me nothing
you never do nothing real
your kind it keeps on cutting
division you create now its all exploding soon
nothing left to break no hope in complaining
all this lay in ruin its a time for mending
gathering of the wounds
09 Not Of This Earth (06:24)
just sit down and talk to death
it's known to teach you time again a something
not of this earth that something not of this earth.
12 o'clock time for bed say no to waking up again
feeling not of this earth that's not of this
earth brings all comfort to no reason never
know where you go what if the intangible
that something to earth not of earth
that something all comfort no reason some reason
11 Sublime (03:52)
I comprehend these laws with no particulars
the trappings of it all can never give in turn
a concept of counsel of the inner wealth
perception of the dark all in you stealth
a sublime substance controlled abstinence sublime
success unworldly happiness a pointed
eloquence in its sublimity precision eminence of all solemnity
for the inner wealth perception of the dark all in your stealth a
necessary call, a law a perspective change, a law
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