Songs From the Black Hole in Bloomington, MN

With their major-label days behind them -- and being compiled on faceless sets like
Playlist: The Very Best of
-- industrial-metal veterans
Prong
have come to the "all-covers album" phase of their career, but
Songs from the Black Hole
sure ain't a clampdown. This power trio is just too agitated and interesting for anything such, with their selections ranging from
Bad Brains
(a wicked "Banned in DC") to
Killing Joke
(a fairly faithful tribute with "Seeing Red"), and most represent some kind of musical influence.
Neil Young
is the oddball surprise but "Cortez the Killer" here is a brilliant drift into space, floating somewhere between the planets of
Monster Magnet
and
Hawkwind
. Add the goth grit of the
Sisters of Mercy
's "Vision Thing" and a pitch-blending blast in
Huesker Due
's "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely" and
kick the "all-covers" cliche up the backside, with
Fugazi
("Give Me the Cure"),
Black Flag
("The Bars"), and
the Butthole Surfers
("Goofy's Concern") still to go. ~ David Jeffries