Beg to Differ [Import]

What was so great about these guys was the tribal repetitiveness of the interplay between the guitar and drums. It sounds like a war dance, and it should, because they were proteges of Killing Joke. The lyrics are excellent and intelligent, which is a rare thing nowadays. No love ballads, no cries out for radio-play (like they could hope to get any in 1990) just a gut-level, relentless hardcore/thrash assault.

Best Songs- "Your Fear", "Beg to Differ", "Take it In Hand", "Prime Cut", "For Dear Life"

This and "Force Fed" are the ones to get. "Prove You Wrong" and "Cleansing" are ok, but too industrial and commercial for my liking...

Prong's "Beg to Differ", released in 1990, still holds its own after eleven years. Tommy Victor's guitar playing on this album is melodic yet still heavy and powerful (though it sometimes does flirt with 1980s hair-band multi-note classical scale soloing); Ted Parsons' drum playing has interesting fast-slow tempo changes on almost every song; and Mike Kirkland's bass playing unobtrusively grounds the heaviness of the music for ensured head banging. I would say the music on "Beg to Differ" verges on sounding "light" compared to some of the speed-metal and metal-punk that has proceeded it, but I think this album can still go head to head with some of these releases too. In terms of the lyrics, Victor's words convey an adolescent anti-authoritarian/anti-capitalist "sell out" anger mixed cryptic imagery pointing to the vacuousness of consumerism. While I now feel (at the ripe old age of 34) these lyrics sometimes take themselves too seriously, I would say that for the most part, they still work. Songs like "Right to Nothing" and "Prime Cut" have great angry imagery and metaphorical language that will either appeal to your sense of humor or your sense of adolescent angst. Check out "Beg to Differ" if you like speed metal with a melodic touch. It's definitely still worth a listen and can help cleanse you when you want to get that head banging, air drums/guitar anti-authoritarian release.

This album encouraged me to pick up a guitar. The production on this album is so pure, cold and sparse...might seem lightweight compared to their later work but has some killer riffs. "Your Fear" is a masterpiece, very original in its structure and probably my favourite prong song ever.