Review of the Album "Force Fed" by American Thrash Metal Band Prong

American thrash metal band Prong probably really rose to mainstream status with their 1994 album called Cleansing. However, their debut album called Force Fed is good as well even though the style of it is different. "Force Fed" is an album that has a more punk music influence combined with crossover thrash metal.

Tommy Victor’s voice in this album is still going through development and it sounds rougher than what we would hear 6 years later. This roughness in Tommy’s voice is the one big con about the album and it is one of the reasons why it will not get an elite score.

The riffing in the first song called Freezer Burn has a riffing style used by Chuck Schuldiner throughout this same time period. The albums in the 1980’s had a more muffled and rougher sound. However, Force Fed does not have the same sound quality as Metallica’s debut album so the riffing is not as raw but it is heavy nonetheless. Prong was formed in 1986, at the time when American heavy metal was experiencing a sort of heyday. Force Fed is similar in style to the album Join the Army which came out in 1987. Heavy metal fans would know which album I am referring to here. Upon further analysis and close attention, Freezer Burn stylistically has that feel of the 1980s Florida death metal sound.

The next song called Senseless Abuse starts with a riff similar to Metallica’s song Seek and Destroy. The guitar riffing in the song is not ancient but it sounds like the old guitar sound that we would hear from Mercyful Fate in their classic 1984 album called Don’t Break the Oath. That guitar riffing style continues into the next song called Primitive Origins. The song has the feel of the song The Four Horsemen (just a little based on the riffing) but obviously it cannot even compare to the superb technicality and aggression that the song has. The Coliseum is an instrumental song which has some feedback in it. This is the noise that an amplifier makes when it is tuned to a certain setting.

The song Decay is a song that can be used to describe the decay in many of the cities in the United States (especially Detroit) where many homes are in bad condition, poverty is rampant, and crime is still very high. These kinds of cities had a foundation which was interrupted when so many people lost their jobs and these auto plants closed down. The song called It’s Been Decided sounds like American thrash metal band Sacred Reich. The song Force Fed sounds like the albums Human and Individual Thought Patterns. The album ends with the fast, punk style song Drainpipe. Overall, "Force Fed" is a good album that got Prong started off on the right foot and it was an important step in the band’s development but it still is not as good as the album Cleansing.