I thought I'd share my 2 most recent YouTube videos, since I've gone back to doing those again, so here they are - 1 vinyl collection update, and 1 "retro gaming" unboxing of a Sega Saturn 3D Control Pad!

Vinyl Collection update - New Arrivals, Old Favorites

Sega Saturn 3D Control Pad "Retro Gaming" Unboxing

Enjoy!

Prong - Carved Into Stone (2012)

Some bands, as they age, show signs of slowing down.  Not necessarily in terms strictly of speed, either in how fast they play, or how fast albums come out, but in terms of the quality & vitality of their material.  Other bands just get better with age, continuing to hone their core sound while massaging it and adding elements as they release a new album.  Prong, while thought to be lost after 1996's "Rude Awakening", came back to mixed reception in 2002, and then went on an extended break again after Tommy Victor joined the Danzig ranks for touring.  2007's "Power of the Damager" was a ray of light, offering hope that Tommy hadn't abandoned his audience, and it was a fiery assault worthy of the Prong name.  2012 saw the band return after another 5-year break, to some fanfare.  Some hailed it as the best thing they'd done since their magnum opus, 1994's "Cleansing".  Does it hit that mark?  Almost.

I will qualify that statement by saying that if you're not a fan of anything Prong has released since 1996, you'd do well to check out both this album and its predecessor for quality Prong material.  If you have and you're still not digging it, you couldn't call yourself much more than a casual fan of their material.  While I agree that "Cleansing" remains their most consistently captivating and quality effort, they've reached highs with their 2 most recent albums, from differing angles.  "Power of the Damager" is a powerful (excuse the pun) record with a lot of grit, energy, passion, and Tommy's signature riffing.  "Carved Into Stone" follows that aural assault up with a slightly more studied approach that is no less entertaining, just a bit more subdued and restrained.

Where "Power of the Damager" went for the jugular more often than not, "Carved Into Stone" prefers a more melodic approach.  There are definitely moments of ferocity, like the muscular opener "Eternal Heat", "Keep On Living In Pain", "List of Grievances" or the punchy "Subtract".  The bulk of the record, however, veers toward the more mid-paced, melodic territory of the material on "Rude Awakening".  Before the haters cry foul, let me say that while I don't think "Rude Awakening" is a bad record by any stretch, I recognize that it's not Prong's best work.  But on the whole, that album was all about mid-paced, groovy, melodic songs versus a more diverse approach.  This same approach is used here, but to greater effect, as the set of songs is stronger overall.  Where "Rude Awakening" had a number of songs that ran into one another without a lot of individual identity, "Carved Into Stone" corrects those mistakes with better melodies, more memorable songs, and improved pacing.

Tommy's signature guitar crunch is in tow here, and the production values highlight that by giving the guitar a very "up front" kind of position in the mix.  The guitar tone here is a bit different than that of "Damager" and has a touch less bite overall, but is a little meatier at the same time.  As always, Tommy's guitar riffing takes center stage, and he sounds great here.  Something that we get to hear Tommy do far more on this record than he's done before is solo - a number of the songs have guitar solos.  These aren't all just short blasts, or the "follow the vocal melody" variety either, as there are a couple extended solos.  Hearing this on the record was at first a bit jarring, and felt a bit "tacked on" or out of place, but after having spun the record numerous times, it makes sense and comes off more naturally than at first listen.  In addition, assuming I even have to say it, Tommy's pinch harmonics sound as awesome as ever.  Vocally, Tommy sounds good, though he is admittedly less energetic than on "Damager", which had a lot of interesting vocal things going on.  But he sings melodically and gets the job done.

Ministry's Tony Campos does an admirable job on the bass, providing the necessary counterpoint for Tommy's riffing without being overly flashy or doing anything that takes away from the core of the Prong sound, which is the groove and crunch of Tommy's guitar.  Bass sits nicely in the mix as well, being audible and able to be heard as its own instrument, yet providing that necessary thump and thickness to the proceedings.  Drum work by Alexei Rodriguez is a highlight.  He replicates a lot of the groove-based approach that previous drummers have done where appropriate, but he adds a lot of double-bass in places where some previous skinsmen would have just continue to groove on.  It's a nice change of pace, and gives the album a bit more personality in that area than some previous albums have had.  Drums are also placed well in the mix, not overpowering either bass or drums, but sitting quite nicely beside them.

I made mention of the songs here being strong, and they are.  "Eternal Heat" is a great opener, filled with energy and great riffing.  "Keep On Living In Pain" follows that up to complete a one-two punch of powerful material, complete with groovy chorus and strong riff.  "Revenge...Best Served Cold" is the best "single" the band has released since "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck", even slightly beating out the awesome "Controller" from "Rude Awakening".  "Put Myself To Sleep" is a song that marries both the energy and melodicism that Prong is known for.  "List Of Grievances" keeps the record interesting by picking up the pace and giving the listener a kick in the ears, as well as pulling out one of the longer, more killer solos Tommy played on the record.  The title track then slows things down for a heavy dose of groove, but keeps things melodic with a hooky chorus.  "Subtract" also picks up the pace again and provides another strong dose of energy.  The album has no lack of quality songwriting, that's for sure.  Lyrically, Tommy treads the usual murky waters of disenfranchisement, human failing, paranoia, and general distaste for the state of affairs of the world.  So, as usual, there's nothing new here, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

With all this positivity, where's the downside?  I love this record, and have listened to it countless times, but I can't shake the feeling that Tommy is so close to achieving a "personal best" and is just barely missing the mark.  I loved "Power of the Damager" as well, but felt that the album's set of songs wasn't as strong as they could be.  This has a better grouping of material, but lacks the punch, aggression, and urgency of its predecessor.  As I mentioned before, Tommy's vocals on this album are a bit "safe" for him.  He sounds great, but with all he did on "Damager", one wonders if he didn't like the results, or just felt that the material here, being of a more melodic nature, didn't benefit from those flourishes, and I'd agree.  I guess I just feel that if Tommy took the best elements of "Damager" (i.e. the aggression, energy, passion, and a more varied vocal approach), and combined those with the best elements on display here (overt melodicism, strong memorable songs, quality production/mix, pacing), he'd be at that apex where he might be able to match or even exceed "Cleansing".  The other potential hiccup is the production - Prong has sounded good on every post-"Cleansing" album, don't get me wrong.  But "Cleansing" had something in that Terry Date production that gave it that extra push.  That record has this really "dense" sound that gives it an air of heaviness that other Prong efforts haven't quite had.  The foreboding tone of the record lent itself so well to the material that it was the perfect storm of creative songwriting, performance, and production.

Overall, I feel like both "Damager" and this outing have explored separate sides of the same Prong coin, and while I dig the predecessor's urgency and aggression, this record has the edge because of its songwriting and the quality of the whole package.  If Tommy can come off this album and follow it up with something equally strong, yet bring in a bit more variety in the vocal department and more contrasts between the melodic and the aggressive, and hone the production to give the whole thing that extra ounce of power, he just might pull it off.  In the meantime, "Carved Into Stone" is an album I will continue to listen to and enjoy, knowing that at the very least, Tommy isn't resting on his laurels and continues to write and record great stuff.  Just don't take another 5 years to give us a follow-up this time, mkay?  Highly recommended.

89/100

**A word on the vinyl release!  I own both the retail digipak CD issue, and the 2xLP edition.  The vinyl itself sounds great, and while not probably 180g, is at least reasonably weighty enough to feel good when you're setting it on the turntable.  The brown marble platters are a nice touch.  My only gripes are that there are no lyrics on either inner sleeve (lazy design choice), and that there's no indication ANYWHERE on the records, packaging, inner or outer sleeves that these platters spin at 45 RPM instead of the requisite 33 1/3 RPM that most LPs opt for.  45 RPM was the right choice for a double LP, I just wish somewhere it had indicated that.  On the plus side, the vinyl edition comes with a bonus track, a cover of Rammstein's "Feuer Frei!" track.  It's a good cover, sufficiently sounding like Prong but being recognizable as a cover of the original.  It's curious that Prong chose to cover the track, because Rammstein could probably have been accused of being influenced by Prong, so I guess it comes full circle.  It sounds like a song that Tommy could have written, and the performance speaks to that.  Also, the vinyl version comes with the full album (minus bonus track) on CD in a paper sleeve!  So if you're a vinyl enthusiast who likes getting the digital download with purchase, this is even better.  It's a shame that this is the only place outside of iTunes to get the cover track, but ultimately the album itself is the main draw.

New Post Series - Deserted Island 500!

There's an old question that gets tossed around a lot, regarding the 'one thing' you would take to a deserted island with you if you were banished to such a place.  Now, given that this is a fantasy scenario, folks generally choose either some kind of 'creature comfort' (despite the general lack of electricity on deserted islands), or as is the case with my post, the question arises about which CD or album you would take with you to a deserted island if it was the last one you'd ever be able to listen to.  Given the size of my CD, cassette, digital, and vinyl collection as of this writing (somewhere in the 3000+ items range), there's NO WAY ON EARTH I could possibly narrow it down to one, especially given the diversity of my tastes.  Thus, I have decided that if I had a stereo setup or at the very least a digital music player with proper capacity and unlimited battery life (this IS a fantasy scenario after all, right?), I couldn't narrow the field any smaller than around 500 albums I would consider "essential" to my own existence on said island paradise.

This island comes with satellite TV and free WiFi, right?

As such, I will be penning a series of posts about around 500 albums in my collection I would consider "essential", releases that I wouldn't sell or trade off unless I was in dire straights.  Each of these posts won't be a proper "album review", but more a short treatise on each album and why I consider it part of the list.  This will differ from my "Album of the Moment" series as well, in that each of these releases has had some kind of emotional impact on me, apart from just enjoying them as pieces of art.  Through this process, I hope to better understand my own connection to my music collection, but also to impart some of that knowledge to others to help them see my perspective on some underrated gems and proven classics.  I would love to see a few unknown albums get a bit more exposure through this process for sure.

Back when my CD collection was a mere 600, I sold off about a third of what I had to pay a bill I was desperately behind on in order to save myself the embarrassment of having to fix the problem later with the company I owed money to.  Now that my collection has grown so large, I could afford to be a bit more judicious with what I have, though I generally don't let go of something once I have it.  That's the burden of the collector, really: you buy stuff that sits on a shelf and doesn't see much daylight, but you wouldn't have it any other way.  I do, however, listen to my music collection as much as time allows, and there are a large number of albums I wouldn't want to part with unless I was facing total destitution, especially since some of them are a bit more rare and would cost considerably more than I originally paid to re-acquire them.  In any event, I hope everyone will enjoy this new series and be inspired to consider their own music collections and what they have to offer.

More content coming!

I must apologize to the 3 (okay, 2) readers who keep up with this blog, as other than weekly announcements of the playlists for my radio show (are you listening yet?) and updates to my vinyl collection (yay!), it has been slim pickings here of late. I had hoped to have at least weekly content, if not more than weekly, but life sometimes gets in the way. Never fear! I am going to make a more concerted effort to try and rectify that by posting as much content as I can in spurts. That doesn't mean the content will be less quality than it has been, but it should mean that every few days (or couple weeks), you'll see between 2 and 5 posts that are NOT related to my radio show, though videos of my collection updates will likely be part of that process as well.

Speaking of videos, if you haven't visited my YouTube channel yet, I would encourage you to do so and check out all my historical content. In addition to all the long format review videos I have and the collection videos, I will be undertaking a large-scale project to encompass my entire media collection. Aside from the collection videos where I brag about incoming vinyl albums, I plan on doing an album-by-album "Mini-Review" of each CD, cassette, and vinyl album or 7" release in my collection, including demos, re-issues, and variations. One-to-one duplicates (where the cassette, vinyl and/or CD versions are exactly the same) will be passed up. Due to the large size of my music collection (2,500+ CDs, 400+ vinyl albums, 100+ cassettes), some folks think I can't possibly have listened to all the music in my collection, but I have listened to nearly everything, save for a few vinyl oddities or CDs that I purchased almost entirely for collection purposes. That said, I plan on intentionally listening to each and every CD that I have, as well as each vinyl album and cassette that I plan on covering. Each of these mini-reviews will be a video recorded on YouTube and then posted to this blog with a small blurb.

But wait, there's more! I did say "media collection" above, didn't I? So not only will I be covering my entire music collection, but I will also be doing mini-reviews and bits on all my video games, DVDs, some classic VHS videos I have, as well as my comic book collection. I may even include my old magazine collection if I get the urge to, which includes several back-issues of the classic "Video Games & Computer Entertainment" magazine, as well as years-old issues of Heaven's Metal and HM Magazine, along with a few odds and ends (GamePro, EGM, Game Informer, Sega Visions, Turbo Magazine, etc). Of course, as I add more media, I will be including that in the mini-review list. I also hope to continue to do little reviews and blogs on favorite TV shows, movies, and current media.

So while it sounds like this will be a giant, daunting task, this isn't something that will be done overnight, and certainly not something I hope to accomplish in some pre-determined length of time. I simply want to undertake this as a way of sharing my somewhat niche music and media collection with everyone and exposing people to stuff they may not have heard of or may know by name, but have no reference for. Hopefully, I can either help bring nostalgia to some, expose some to new music, movies or games that might be right up their alley, or at the very least, shed more light on the things I enjoy so that others have at least had a chance to hear about them. Stay tuned!

Vinyl Collection Additions!

More new additions to my vinyl music collection!

Christmas-themed Vinyl Records

My paltry collection of Christmas-themed vinyl: all two of them!