Skinny Puppy

Since reforming in 2000, after a five-year hiatus, Skinny Puppy 2.0 have now been an active band for as long as their original trailblazing incarnation. Retaining the core line-up of Ogre, cevin Key and Mark Walk, the Vancouver, BC industrialists have followed-up 2011's well-received HanDover with the decorous, buoyant Weapon, their 12th full-length. Further working towards fusing the glossy synth sound of their early work with the dark experimentalism of their '90s releases, much of Weapon benefits from Skinny Puppy's reclaimed penchant for pouncing rhythms and bouncing melodies. "illisiT," the album's strongest and catchiest track, is a polished revisiting of everything that makes Skinny Puppy so compelling: decaying beats and nail-driving refrains, along with world-gone-wrong rants. "solvent" and "tsudanama" contain some fascinating production work, as keyboards pump out alien, non-linear squeaks and rubbery rhythms. Weapon stands as Skinny Puppy's strongest work since 1992's Last Rights; it's a testament to one of the few reformed bands still striving to push, not just themselves, but an entire bygone genre forward.