PRONG Taps OVERKILL Drummer JASON BITTNER For European Tour

PRONG has recruited Jason Bittner (OVERKILL, SHADOWS FALL) to play drums for the band on its upcoming European tour as the support act for LIFE OF AGONY.

The first leg of LIFE OF AGONY's "30 Years Of River Runs Red" tour will kick off in Europe on January 13 in Bochum, Germany and end in Milton Keynes, England on February 11. Additional support will come from MADBALL (on U.K. dates only),with rock duo TARAH WHO? opening all shows.

Says Bittner: "Soooooooo like I said the other day, getting back from the last OVERKILL show was not the end of my musical weekend - straight off the plane in New Jersey to drive to Long Island the next morning to jam with my longtime friend Tommy Victor, to get ready for the upcoming PRONG tour with LIFE OF AGONY in Europe this coming January 2023.

"Griffin McCarthy wasn't able to do this tour due to some other commitments so leave it to yours truly to yet again play with another of my all -time favorite bands, and we will be playing a lot of material off my favorite album – 'Cleansing'. And not to mention I get to hear another one of my favorite albums of all time being played every night too - and that's 'River Runs Red'. Should be an awesome time, I look forward to it and we will see you out there!"

Two months ago, PRONG leader Tommy Victor confirmed to Heavy New York that he and his bandmates are hard at work on the long-awaited follow-up to 2017's "Zero Days" album. "I can tell you the single will be out, the digital single, in January," he said. "'Cause the record is almost done. So for our European tour with LIFE OF AGONY in January, the single will be out. And the [full-length] record [will be out in], I guess, April or something. It depends on when the pressing plant can do it. It's on Steamhammer/SPV again, the same label. All the basic tracks are done. I've just gotta do vocals and solos now."

Speaking about his approach for the upcoming LP, which was produced by Steve Evetts, who previously helmed 2012's "Carved Into Stone" and 2014's "Ruining Lives", Tommy said: "This one is special because it's the first record I've written since I moved back to New York, [to] Amityville. So that concept is there, where it's, like, you know what? This is where the early PRONG stuff was written. I wrote it in my apartment in Amityville, and it's killer. So that's the concept, is that it's written back where I'm from. It's very hardcore, it's really heavy, but PRONG has to have the hooks, so it's still in there too. There's a lot of good choruses and understandable lyrics."

PRONG's latest release was an EP titled"Age Of Defiance", which came out in November 2019 via SPV/Steamhammer. The effort, which was produced by Chris Collier, included two new studio songs, the title cut and "End Of Sanity", along with live recordings of three tracks: "Rude Awakening", "Cut-Rate" and "Another Worldly Device".