Whoa. Seriously. These guys have been around for three decades. That’s 30 years!…or, like, 13 centuries in metric dog-time.

Over the course of those 30 years, Skinny Puppy have released a dozen albums, and this release is being touted as a Skinny Puppy “concept album.” The theme? “Gun culture.”

There is a more obvious vibe of frantic urgency in the beats and tunes than in the past two Puppy discs (2011’s Handover and 2007’s Mythmaker). Maybe it’s the subject matter or all the damn shootings and firearms shite that seems to be happening with a bit too much regularity. But whatever the inspiration may be, it has laid some electro-bedrock for a pretty solid disc. Adding to that musical edge is the electro-altered vocals of Ogre. Back are the straightforward Oliver Twist-meets-Gollum ventings; no ethereal effects or any of that mess.

The whole industrial dance with a conscience idea works well, scratching across the diamond plate of your mind and leaving some questioning thoughts behind…wearing some PVC pants. “Tsudanama” is the disc’s standout track.

(Metropolis Records, PO Box 974, Media, PA 19063)