In case you didn’t catch us hyping it over the past month or so, Prong returned to New York City after five years and played a CMJ show on a friggin’ boat!  It happened aboard the Queen of Hearts as a Rocks Off! Concert Cruise last Friday, and despite some initially foreboding rain day-of-show, a dedicated bunch of metalheads turned out to snap fingers and necks alike.

But how exactly was it?  Without any doubt, it was one of the highlights of this year’s CMJ Music Marathon.  Even a non-metal fan could have appreciated the atmosphere, bolstered by the Statue of Liberty coming into view mid-cruise and red and gold Christmas lights lining the boat’s canopy.  For Sleeping or Jumping baffled an excited audience with its head-spinning approach to math-metal, Eminence demonstrated the lethal, grooving thrash that put Brazil on the metal map, and Prong played a set stacked top-to-bottom with career-spanning classics (ending with, of course, “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck).  It was an absolutely mind-blowing experience, taken in an intimate setting and certainly not easily forgotten.

Click through after the jump for photos from the cruise [courtesy of Derek Soto from Sinestra Studios/Next Mosh].

Check out more of Soto’s photos here, while more pictures taken by Junia Mortimer can be seen here.