Power Of The Damager was released on Victor’s rock ghoul Ministry pal Al Jourgensen’s 13th Planet Records to critical praise, but deserved more attention than it got. Though Death Magnetic was a good record, Power Of The Damager certainly matches and even surpasses it in ferocity, for all you Metallica fans out there who might want to support another deserving old school band too. My point is Prong deserves as much attention as the biggest metal bands out there, having proven themselves time and time again and paved the road for so many noise bands and forward thinking types to follow.

Prong’s peers, however, are lining up to give props and be involved in the Prong legacy with the new remix album Power Of The Damn Mixxxer, also on 13th Planet! The record is a gem, showcasing the cuts from the original Damager re-sculpted (but with the Prong legacy in mind) by talents as great and diverse as J.S. Clayden of Pitchshifter fame, Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Virus of Dope, John Bechdel of False Icons/Fear Factory and even the talented Rob Caggiano of Anthrax (also known as the producer of bands like Cradle of Filth and Bleeding Through). It’s great to see all these people and more participating in giving props to Victor and company, and the results are awesome, ranging from industrial-laced Prong redux to amped-up, different takes on the originals.

I caught up with Tommy to ask about the Power Of The Damn Mixxxer as well as a few more questions about the original album I didn’t ask last time I interviewed him for Crusher. With the band working on a new record this year, a stop at the Jourgensen MC’d Suicidal Metal Fest in May and an imminent twenty five city European tour, rest assured this train is still rollin’ all night long.

MORGAN Y. EVANS: Tommy, hearing some of the Power Of The Damn Mixxxer remixes of the Power Of The Damager album stuff put me in mind of some of the Rude Awakening-era stuff, with industrial elements back in play. Power Of The Damager was more straight-forward metal.

TOMMY VICTOR: It was probably by accident that it turned out like that. We had the plan for awhile for the remix version of Power Of The Damager. It took awhile to come to fruition because I didn’t like a lot of the first submissions. I thought they sounded like garbage! When I finally heard the “Pure Ether” remix (by AK1200 & GENR8) I thought, “This is cool. This is more of the direction I’d like it to go in.” Then I heard “Worst of It” remixed by J.S. Clayden of Pitchshifter and I thought, “That’s what I’m talking about!” I didn’t want a dance record. I wanted guys to use some of the old parts and re-arrange it and put a little mark on it rather than making it a dance record. Some of the other ones didn’t have any allegiance to the song. I mean, some of the ones we have now are outrageous. “Bad Fall” by Greg Puciato has nothing to do with the song, but it sounded cool. Finally we got ones that sounded cool. I dunno, the comparison to Rude Awakening is strange to me, ‘cuz that record was all originals, not remixes.

MYE: I just meant as far as having more electronic highlights to stuff.

TV: Yeah. We’re not gonna do that live for now. We’re just gonna be straight-ahead. Maybe down the line we’ll bring some of that shit back, but not for now.

MYE: The current line-up is killing it. I was listening back to Power Of The Damager and some of your playing together, like “Can’t Stop The Bleeding” and, I mean, you still have the best riffs out there.

TV: Oh, thanks, man. That means a lot coming from you. Appreciate it.

MYE: It’s interesting, the way you pulled that record together and now to have all these people remix it. It must’ve been a hard task for them because the original was really awesome and solid. I can see people being daunted by it, but you got great talents on board. How did it feel having people psyched to contribute like this?

TV: I got really excited about it. The first group of stuff I didn’t like, about a year ago. So, this whole new crew of people we got involved, I was pretty strict about what we wanted. It’s hard to say exactly what that is, but I was pretty excited. Once I started hearing this new crop, I finally heard them and really got excited.

MYE: How much leeway did you give them? What was the percentage?

TV: It was about the selection of people. They get it. Everyone involved understands Prong so they wanted to do it. They came to us and I knew they’d get it. There was a couple of people we did reject that I won’t mention, but most of these guys nailed it. There was a couple of things we changed here and there, but I knew they’d get it. Some of the remixes Al wanted originally a year ago, I didn’t like ‘em. This new crew had a familiarity to it.

MYE: I was psyched on Rob Caggiano of Anthrax’s involvement remixing “The Banishment” (Wolfzilla & The Angry Moon Mix). He’s actually the cousin of my guitar player’s girlfriend Sophia. He knows guitars and I was psyched to hear him mess with your guitars a little bit.

TV: I like your comment. He sped it up a little bit and a lot of times when you do that the guitars get all weird. The engineering on that is really good. The guitars sound probably better than they do on the original record! I was like , “How the…!” He did a really good job of speeding up the vocals. His mix is probably the best sounding and most impressive from a strictly engineering part on the whole record.

MYE: Yeah, he’s a sick engineer. It’s true when you speed things up sometimes you lose the groove and with Prong that is as important as the speed parts.

TV: Yeah. We keep to that format. I know it’s not the most popular anymore, but somebody’s gotta do it, I guess. [laughing]

MYE: Oh man, it works though. I hear so many records and then listen to a band like you guys or Today Is the Day who stick to their guns and it reminds you of how good it can be when it is pure.

TV: Thanks, bro.

MYE: I wanted to ask you about a lyric from the song “Power Of The Damager” that has stuck with me since it came out. The lyric where you yell the line “gotta find a new singer”.

TV: [guffawing] Ahh! Yeah, I guess that lyric took me about five minutes to write. It’s the way your mouth has been sewn. The whole thing is like a poem anyhow. I wrote the thing and then put the music to it. It matched the song I was working on. But yeah, you have to make changes or it’s, your mouth is sewn, like a metaphor how you need to shut up and let somebody else do the talking for you.

MYE: Oh! I see. I thought it was a reference to some critical A&R douche bag guy telling you to sing more pop at some point and you saying, “Fuck you! We’re Prong!” [laughing]

TV: [laughing] Hey, you know what!? That’s happened! It’s sort of part of the whole trip of just being depressed or whatever, actually.

MYE: There was the song “No Justice”; which talked about “No justice in life” and then the song “3rd Option” is, I don’t know if optimistic is the right word, because it still talked about problems, but you sang about finding your own way. That might be my favorite tune from Power Of The Damager.

TV: Yeah, that’s what that is. Definitely. You can’t have completely negative themes the whole record.

MYE: [laughing] Yes, you can.

TV: [laughing] I guess you can. I mean, I go from one end of the spectrum to the other. I’m like, completely nihilistic and cynical and jaded and then when I get tired of being that way I like, search for God in my life.

MYE: “Spirit Guide”.

TV: Yeah. I’m reaching out for something to pull me from whatever miserable situation I’m in.

MYE: It’s good that you put it all into song, an outlet for it.

TV: Yeah, it’s part of being an artist. I don’t usually have that many discussions with interviewers and stuff about lyrics. Kids don’t really look at it that intently sometimes, but I put a lot of time in it and have in the past, you know.

MYE: I can tell. Power Of The Damager, I mean, you always have good riffs but it felt like you dug deep for that record. It’s a testament to the record that even with stuff switched around or, in a few cases radically altered, it holds up.

TV: Exactly. Radically altered was the thing we did not want to happen throughout the whole record. “Bad Fall” was radically altered but I wanted some consistency in most places with the actual originals. “Can’t Stop the Bleeding” was really the song with that steady drum beat behind it. It’s a drum arrangement so it is really the same song but re-arranged. I like what these guys did, like that one, it works with it. It could be a real alternative to the original arrangement.

MYE: Are there any of the bands involved you’re a particular fan of?

TV: I always like The Dillinger Escape Plan. I mean, they are a really impressive group. I was very happy Greg was involved. Of course Anthrax was a huge influence on Prong, and Pitchshifter, I mean, we sort of grew up in the same scene.

MYE: I was psyched to see his name on there because I haven’t heard anything about Pitchshifter in awhile. They did one of the best Sabbath covers I’ve ever heard back in the day with “N.I.B.” from the Earache Records Masters Of Misery tribute to Sabbath.

TV: Yeah, he’s doing stuff! I think he’s doing a lot of stuff locally and doing engineering and remixes. Some of the guys are more my friends, like Roman Marisak of Professional Murder Music. John Bechdel of False Icons was of course in Prong. I knew he would do it because he used to play with Prong and understands us. Clayton from RevCo is a close friend of mine.

MYE: Yeah, I talked with Sin Quirin of RevCo/Ministry recently about how cool 13th Planet Records is, where you are all friends between the bands and it allows for unique collaborations like this sort of thing, a prime example!

TV: Al’s producing the next Prong record and we’re working on that. We’re gonna see more of a connection with the rawness of Prong with more stylized stuff, rather than the same format as Power Of The Damager. We wanted to do that, not just be a carbon copy.

MYE: Al’s mix of “The Banishment” on the original Power Of The Damager has a different snare sound than the rest of the album, a bit more of the industrial sound, I thought.

TV: That’s probably a little more of where we are gonna go for with the next one, I’m sure.

MYE: What’s your headspace as far as where the riffs are going?

TV: To be honest with you, it’s hellish! [laughing] It’s like, “What do you do?” I saw the Jeff Beck induction to the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame the other night and it was really good. They had an interviewer on and they asked him if he had any advice for young guitarists, and he pretty much laughed and said, “Good luck”. He said how everything had pretty much been done and maybe someone would find something else but as far as he was concerned, what he was pretty much saying was “don’t even bother”. You’ve got all the greats floating around like him and Steve Vai and it’s like, they did it all!

MYE: That’s discouraging advice! [laughing]

TV: It was realistic and truthful and I appreciated that! Unfortunately, some of that mentality gets into what you are doing. It’s like, “What now?” You have to find someway to get something new in there, and it’s a major challenge. Then you have to fit that into songs. Now, what we’ve been doing, Aaron has been working with me heavily on some of the new stuff. He laughs about it and says, “Maybe this is getting a little bit too math metal” but it’s not gonna be when it is done. People won’t even notice. There’s some different shit going on.

MYE: You’ve always been innovative mixing metal with these weird and really creative chord structures and shit.

TV: We’ve hinged on regular metal here and there, and I have no problem doing that so much. Some of this new stuff has a bit more Black Sabbath in there than normal. We did stuff live like “Freezer Burn” and “Disbelief” from really way, way back and the crowd was still into it, so some of the new stuff is a little throwback. I don’t mind doing that.

MYE: Hey, it’s your sound.

TV: It’s a combination of that and finding something new. Trying to stay healthy doing it. It’s very challenging.

MYE: Not many bands can say they made a sound in the first place and Prong can.

TV: It’s hard. Bands like the Ramones and AC/DC are great within their formula. Static-X do that also, working in a framework. It’s tough to develop that.

MYE: Do you have any surprises in store for the Suicidal Metal Fest appearance in May?

TV: [laughing] Not really. We may cover a couple Ministry songs.

MYE: ‘Cuz Al will be there?

TV: I think he’s MC or something. Last time we did some Ministry songs live Al didn’t even notice! [In goofy Al impersonation] “I heard you guys played that.” And I’ll ask him, “Weren’t you watching?” And he’ll be like, “No.” [laughing]

MYE: Speaking of Ministry, last time I talked to you was before the last Ministry tour and I wanted to ask you with CuLaTour finally over and the ADIOS…PUTA MADRES CD/DVD coming out, how did it go?

TV: It wasn’t the happiest thing because you’re working around something and you know it is ending. It’s unusual in art that you are doing something you know is gonna end. Usually you’re in a band working for the future as your incentive. That was the kind of vibe I had through the tour and it was affecting my attitude. The band got it together though and it was a good, professional unit.

MYE: And it gave the fans a chance to know it was the last time and come out and see it.

TV: That’s true, that was the marketing end. On the other hand, it was the last three years of Ministry, like a new band. The material was basically from HOUSES OF THE MOLE, THE LAST SUCKER and RIO GRANDE BLOOD, plus the covers record. I enjoyed it was centered on that, rather than play all the old hits and blah blah blah. We stuck to the newer shit.

MYE: Every record through Ministry’s career had something to offer.

TV: The last three starting with MOLE were really powerful. I thought we should keep going and make another record and it’d be better than the last two. Al said “Nope.” The fans were absolutely happy with the performances though. It was nothing but positive reactions the whole time.

MYE: Are you still living in L.A.?

TV: I’ve been in L.A. a long time.

MYE: How do you think living there has affected you as far as writing versus the East Coast?

TV: From a creative standpoint I regret having moved from there. The East Coast is very energizing. There’s too many distractions here! You don’t have that get up and go all the time, it’s a lot different.

MYE: The records still have a lot of punch, though. You must still have things to be pissed off about!

TV: [laughing] It’s true, though I wouldn’t wanna live only like that. We have places like downtown L.A. where we rehearse. It has a non-Californian atmosphere. It is urban here too, in a way. Everyone thinks California is just beaches. The thing is, you don’t get on the subway and have to deal with all that or have the L.E.S. scene, but that atmosphere is long gone in New York anyway. I’m not dying to go back, ‘cuz you can’t afford it anyway.

MYE: Do you have a working title for the next record?

TV: Yeah, ETERNAL HEAT.

MYE: Like hell-fire?

TV: [laughing] Exactly! I don’t remember how I came up with it. I was thinking about a God figure or creative force in the world. It was like a whole acid trip I was on where you feel like you were on fire. It’s cornball, but that was sort of what that is.

MYE: You can feel all your cells or something.

TV: Exactly.

MYE: It can work as a title for times when you feel really alive or even when in a lot of pain, either way.

TV: Yeah.

MYE: Well thanks, man. We can’t wait to hear it.

TV: Thanks for the interview, Morgan. It was really good.