Prong – Live And Uncleansed
Steamhammer Records
9,0/10,0
Brief:
There’s one thing that everyone readily agrees on: Live concerts are the icing on the cake for musicians and fans alike. Every show is a very special experience and sometimes even creates an almost magical performance. Such moments are beyond explanation, you just have to be there to believe it or, in a best-case scenario, have them recorded for posterity – as American metal act Prong have done with their latest live album. Which is exactly what guitarist/vocalist Tommy Victor and bandmates Christopher Dean (bass) and Tyler Joseph (drums) have achieved on ‘Live And Uncleansed’: Recorded over seven nights in July and August 2025, they are now ready to present eleven powerful live songs (plus three live bonus tracks), all pure and unadulterated, authentic and honest, which is the reason why the result is so incredibly captivating. “We were really well rehearsed, this is truly a live (!) record, everything is as is,” explains Tommy Victor, proudly adding: “You can hear some of the little mistakes here and there, but that makes it cool!” ‘Live And Uncleansed’ will be available from 6 March 2026 on Steamhammer/Open Distribution on CD, LP and for digital download, just in time for Prong’s upcoming tour of Germany and Belgium (see tour dates).
The shows in late summer 2025 were part of the anniversary tour to celebrate Prong’s classic 1994 album release ‘Cleansing’. Says Victor: “We were celebrating 31 (!) years of ‘Cleansing’, so we played all the ‘Cleansing’ songs. We also did two songs that didn’t make the final cut on ‘Cleansing’ but were recorded and mixed: ’Corpus Delecti’, which is a bonus track on the ‘Live And Uncleansed’ record. And ‘Inheritance’, which is on all formats. This song is featured on the ‘Airheads’ movie soundtrack.” The venues and festivals where the recordings for ‘Live And Uncleansed’ were cut include Wacken Open Air on 31 July 2025 (‘Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck’, which is also the official lead single), the Alcatraz Festival in Kortrijk, Belgium, on 10 August 2025 (‘Revenge … Best Served Cold’, ‘The Descent’) and – in between – the iconic Colos-Saal in Aschaffenburg on 2 August 2025 (‘Inheritance’, ‘Whose Fist Is This Anyway?’) and the Hirsch club in Nuremberg on 7 August 2025 (‘One Outnumbered’, ‘Corpus Delecti’, ‘Out of This Misery’).
Victor proudly comments on the ‘Cleasing’ anniversary tour: “It was the longest set Prong ever did, over two hours sometimes. I really enjoyed the long set. We have so many songs that our fans want to hear. We did some numbers from our debut ‘Force Fed’ in the original E-tuning, which shocked people. Of course, the fans also loved this long set, and I believe they really felt they got their money’s worth!” The same undoubtedly applies to the material on ‘Live And Uncleansed’, which features a sleeve based on the original ‘Cleansing’ artwork and is likely to have a lasting impact on Prong’s future songwriting: “I think playing the ‘Cleansing’ material as well as going way back and doing ‘Force Fed’ songs and others played in good old E-tuning has influenced the new tracks we are currently working on. I think we are halfway finished with the writing.”
More good news from the Prong camp, and naturally the band’s fans are eagerly looking forward to the shows in March 2026, which have already been confirmed. Tommy Victor vows: “We’re going to do more of the same long set with probably more. We were thinking of doing a few more from ‘State Of Emergency’ and we’re going to try to do some never-before-heard new songs.” Does that sound promising or what?
[Edited Press Release]
Tracklist:
01 Revenge…Best Served Cold
02 Inheritance
03 The Descent
04 One Outnumbered
05 No Question
06 Sublime
07 Not Of This Earth
08 Home Rule
09 Ultimate Authority
10 Snap Your Fingers,Snap Your Neck
11 However It May End
Bonus Tracks:
12 Out Of This Misery
13 Corpus Delicti
14 Whose Fist Is This Anyway?
Main Focus Tracks:
01 Revenge…Best Served Cold
05 No Question
08 Home Rule
10 Snap Your Fingers,Snap Your Neck
12 Out Of This Misery
14 Whose Fist Is This Anyway?
Other Recommended Tracks:
03 The Descent
06 Sublime
07 Not Of This Earth
09 Ultimate Authority
11 However It May End
Line-Up:
Tommy Victor (Guitar/Vocals)
Christopher Dean (Bass)
Tyler Joseph (Drums)
Comments:
Blending powerful riffs with rich detail in a sophisticated manner, Live and Uncleansed is yet another demonstration of Prong’s enduring brilliance, seemingly untouched by the passage of time.
Contacts:
Video:
Selected Discography:
Force Fed – 1988
Beg to Differ – 1990
Prove You Wrong – 1991
Cleansing – 1994
Rude Awakening – 1996
100% Live Live album – 2002
Scorpio Rising – 2003
Power of the Damager – 2007
Carved into Stone – 2012
Unleashed in the West Live album – 2014
Ruining Lives – 2014
Songs from the Black Hole – 2015
X – No Absolutes – 2016
Zero Days – 2017
State of Emergency – 2023
Live and Uncleansed Live album – 2026
Photo Credit: band