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When Skinny Puppy last graced the world of industrial music with a release, 1996’s The Process, they had been plagued by more tragedy than any 10 bands combined. Longtime keyboard programmer R. Dwayne Goettel had died of a heroin overdose in the aftermath of an inventive cry for help that involved him wrapping his arms in barbed wire. cEvin Key shattered some bones in an accident on a film set, and creative differences had led longtime collaborators Key and Nivek Ogre to head their separate ways. But after a near-decade spent concentrating on numerous on-going side projects (The Tear Garden and Download, to name a few) the Canadian duo has reunited to create The Greater Wrong Of The Right, a disc that marks a notable departure from anything they’ve released in the last two decades. “I’mmortal” kicks off The Greater Wrong Of The Right with a riff frighteningly similar to Pop Will Eat Itself’s industrial-dance crossover classic “Ich Bin Ein Auslander.” But if Pop Will Eat Itself were the stylistic precursor to what would become crappy nu-metal, Skinny Puppy thankfully doesn’t travel too far down that done-to-death path, instead remaining firmly planted in the realm of electronic dance. However, it seems SP has gone as far as to eschew their most aggressive elements, ones that often have them spoken of in the same breath as Ministry during its heyday, in favor of a sound more suited to the EBM fetish that dominates today’s industrial dance floor. Gone is Ogre’s famously disgust-drenched growl in favor of a more mellowed vocal style; also largely vanished is the vicious, marching synthesized onslaught that permeates most of the Skinny Puppy catalog. But Skinny Puppy hasn’t entirely abandoned its infamous brand of aural violence on The Greater Wrong, just toned it down a bit. The undulating chorus and throbbing beats of “Neuwerld” recall days more aggro, as does the unconventional slow build of the anthemic “Use Less.” Even the far-too-club-friendly “Past Present” maintains a bit of the flare for experimentalism that always set Skinny Puppy apart from more straightforward bands of the industrial ilk. It’s hard to say if this new, more subtle approach to tried-and-true hostility is an artistic progression or a sign of mollification. You won’t find mind-obliterating tracks like “Fascist Jock Itch” on this disc, but if you’re still as fanatical about SP as you were in the late ‘80s to mid-’90s, you’ll probably find a few throwbacks to their glory days of furious electronic nihilism that’ll make The Greater Wrong worth your while. —Matthew
Stern
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