Supposedly was on tour with , the band he's been fronting since 2002, when he found himself thinking a great deal about 's epochal 1981 debut album, . Given the many miles racked up criss-crossing America during their bloody heyday, that shouldn't be at all surprising, but rather than picking up a new copy of the album and cranking it up in celebration of his fellow road warriors, channeled his thoughts in a different direction -- after coming home from the tour, he took into a studio and covered 11 of 's 15 tracks, all without giving himself or his musicians a refresher course on what they sounded like. The result, , reimagines 's ragged hymns of rage and angst into smart but fractured bursts of wiry guitar (imagine after ten cups of coffee) accompanied by breathy, ethereal vocals, occasional interjections of strings and woodwinds, and a precise but flexible rhythm section. While these interpretations stray a considerable distance from 's originals, what's most surprising is how much of the original frameworks of these songs remain -- the melodies, such as they are, can generally still be recognized, and if the pissed-off howl of is the polar opposite of 's vocal style, the contrary message of the songs somehow shines through. On one hand, could be used as an example of how can take nearly any music and make it his own, but at the same time it doesn't sound like he's forgotten the original intent behind this music for an instant. was a scream of defiance in the face of a grim and unforgiving world, but on use the curious beauty of their music as a protest against the ugliness of a violent and corrupt society. Perhaps even more than , when sings "we're fighting a war that we can't win" in he wants more than anything to make a world where that isn't the truth, and it's moments like this that make a brave and ultimately successful experiment. ~ Mark Deming