When I reviewed Skinny Puppy's Nettwerk Records swansong, Last Rights (in '92), I praised it as a suitably chaotic epitaph to their equally chaotic career. Four years, one record company switch and Keyboardist Dwayne Goettel's suicide later, Vancouver's self-proclaimed 'alternative to the alternative' has finally released their real musical epitaph. Far less overtly mainstream than was rumoured, The Process is filled with the same spooky synths, disembodied vocal samples and off-kilter electro-beats which made Puppy (arguably) the world's most influential industrial band. What is different is frontman Ogre's voice: I can actually understand what he is saying/singing/screaming. Stripped of the effects and distortion which rendered his stream-of-consciousness lyrics so indecipherable for so long, Ogre's voice stands naked and vulnerable in the middle of the mix (especially on the first single, "Candle"), giving the music a humanity which was always lacking. But still machine music, as evidenced by the hellish blasts of "Jayha", "Crucible", and "Cellar Heat". Mercifully, Skinny Puppy has not gone gentle into that good night.

--Sean Plummer