Erg, another covers record, right? These are usually the domain of washed up bands bereft of ideas, and even the most die hard apologists would have a hard time defending the idea that Prong's last several albums have seen them at their most vital and inspired, so Songs from the Black Hole must be a complete disaster, right?
Actually, while far from demonstrating a band on a creative rebound, Songs from the Black Hole does justify its existence more than most covers albums via the bypassing of obvious, picked over material in favor of a balance of album cuts and iconic (but not necessarily overplayed) choices by the bands in question. Contrast that with something like Six Feet Under's Graveyard Classics series, which typically feature a stunningly obvious track listing meant to appeal to fans who recognize every single song and want to hear SFU's take, or even Slayer's Undisputed Attitude, which may have seemed like a revelation to kids who grew up listening to metal exclusively, but probably seemed like a rote "greatest hits" to fans that grew up on 80's hardcore.
Songs from the Black Hole splits the difference, never really getting too arcane with its choice of artists in general (Black Flag, Killing Joke, Fugazi, etc) but at least offering lesser known cuts by those artists: "Doomsday" by Discharge, "The Bars" by Black Flag, "Goofy's Concern" by Butthole Surfers… though the band don't always stay true to that crate digging ethos, occasionally throwing out a "Banned in DC" (Bad Brains) or "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely (Husker Du) that won't be lost on any casual fan of 80s punk.
However, Prong have a history of successfully reviving dormant songs in their own image (ie. "Get a Grip (On Yourself)" by The Damned) and, in this case, Tommy Victor sounds great singing stuff like "Kids from the Black Hole" (Adolescents), "Seeing Red" (Killing Joke) and "Vision Thing" (Sisters of Mercy). Elsewhere, though, he brings little to the table on "Banned in DC", and the obligatory stab at the oft-covered – in recent years at least – "Cortez the Killer" (Neil Young) could have easily been left on the drawing board.
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