:: Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker

Skinny Puppy

After marking their return following an eight year absence with ‘The Greater Wrong Of Right’ in 2004, Canadian based avant-garde industrial pioneers Skinny Puppy returns with its long awaited thirteenth (and appropriately titled) studio release ‘Mythmaker’. Obviously with eight years between releases, ‘The Greater Wrong Of Right’ was quite a departure from what most consider Skinny Puppy’s definitive past, and to same extent, ‘Mythmaker’ further reinforces the band’s newer and decidedly more accessible direction since their reformation for the most part. The opening track ‘Magnifishit’ is definitely a track that features both elements of the past and the present, with Ogre’s vocals adding a menacing tone to the tracks relatively straightforward backing of simplified beats and interjected sound effects, while ‘daL’ is based purely in I.D.M. (Intelligent Dance Music) territory, meaning that it has a strong and evident Ogre solo work presence felt throughout. The lengthy ‘haZe’ again features a heavy Ogre feel, and while it has a certain charm, it doesn’t really represent the essence of what is considered Skinny Puppy’s work in a true sense. Thankfully, tracks such as the heavier sounding ‘pedafly’, the dark and sinister ‘jaHer’, the static ‘politikiL’ and the damning closer ‘ugLi’ balance the old with the new with an even hand, proving Skinny Puppy’s willingness to move forward with their new sound, without tripping over their past.
The remainder of the album is no less interesting, but hardly what would be considered the strongest material from Skinny Puppy by any means. From the mid ‘80’s, right through to the early ‘90’s, Skinny Puppy was in the forefront of cutting edge industrial music. Sadly, that’s no longer the case here. After having been absent from the scene for many years, Skinny Puppy these days sounds more or less like an amalgamation of the said members side projects, with only the band’s name separating the many entities. Although I can accept that the members of Skinny Puppy have matured and moved on sound wise, there’s not enough on ‘Mythmaker’ to challenge and separates itself from ohGr (Ogre’s side project) for me to consider this a true rival to their last album ‘The Process’.