Greater Wrong of the Right

Its rumored demise having been somewhat exaggerated, Skinny Puppy returns after an eight-year layoff with as poppy and melodic an album as an industrial band worthy of the name can produce. Nivek Ogre's vocals are nearly distortion-free and Cevin Key's dancefloor-ready production is positively smooth compared to the band's previous effort, 1996's THE PROCESS.
The socially conscious Canadian noise rockers take several pages out of the Nine Inch Nails playbook with a collection of hooky, practically listener-friendly tracks such as "I'mmortal," with its guileless "Just looking for something" chorus, and "Use Less," which sports an atmospheric, futuristic ambience. It's left up to the death-disco groove of songs "EmpTe," "Past Present," and the post-industrial wasteland tale "Neuwerld" to recall the band's fierce 1980s roots. While Skinny Puppy's sound could never exactly be called lightweight, THE GREATER WRONG OF THE RIGHT signals something of a smoothing-out of rough edges. But the presence of tracks such as "DaddyuWarbash" means the group never totally abandons its signature menace--or its love of intimidating anti-war songs.