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.