Metal Underground.com

When did remix albums make the jump from being a strictly dance/pop phenomenon to one found in the metal community? Look, I'm as partial to shaking my groove thing as the next guy, but didn't performers like Limp Bizkit and Rob Zombie, both solo and with White Zombie, put enough dance-able grooves into their records already? That's why I guess I came to Prong's "Power Of The Damn Mixxxer," which offers remixes from the band's 2007 "Power Of The Damager" album, with more than a little apprehension.

Judging the songwriting on an album like this is a little superfluous, but I will say that Tommy Victor and the boys have created some great basic structures for the guys remixing the songs to work with.

Basically, in reviewing a remix album, you're looking almost exclusively at the production elements and, with 13 different guys changing things up, it's a bit pointless to look for any kind of coherence. That said, most of these mixes are at least listenable, with many of them maintaining a metal edge.

"Worst Of It (Worst of The Worst Mix)," the lead-off track, is despite its name, one of the better tracks on the album, with Pitchshifter's John Clayden choosing to emphasize the metallic over the industrial. "Can't Stop The Bleeding (SMack! Mix)" stands out for its Rob Zombie-ish sound.

Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano comes up with a pretty good version of "The Banishment" in his "Wolfzilla & The Angry Moon Mix," but he's outdone by Clayton Worbeck of the Revolting Cocks on the later "Bitter Harvest Mix" of the song. Strangely enough, I find Worbeck's take more successful despite it being the less "metal" of the two.

One thing that amuses me about albums of this sort is the tendency of the mixers to essentially abandon the notion of natural bass and drums, as Kourtney Klien does on "3rd Option (Naked In The Cadillac Mix)." Sure, it's got grooves, but it's got no guts. The worst song on the album, for me, is "No Justice (Crackmix)," which seems to me to be a by-the-numbers dance mix.

If you're looking for something to dance to, with occasional moments of headbanging, this is the disc for you. It'll tide over Prong fans until next year, when their next disc — produced by Tommy Victor's Ministry boss Al Jourgensen — hits the stores.