Gathering a star-studded cast of friends to reinterpret tracks from the band's 2020 effort,
Puscifer manages to deliver a remix album that stands tall alongside the original with the excellent
Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired. Plucked from very familiar orbits, the list of contributors runs the gamut. In-house talent takes a third of the duties, with touring members
Greg Edwards (
Failure) getting introspective on "Personal Prometheus" and
Gunnar Olsen twisting the original album highlight "Fake Affront" into an intergalactic storm of programmed noise, vocal loops, and a pulse-pounding beat. Meanwhile, full-time guitarist/bassist/producer
Mat Mitchell puts his keyboard talents to work on a beefed-up version of the groovy, synth-washed "Bread and Circus," while
Carina Round transforms "A Singularity" into an avant-garde fever dream. Outside of the
Puscifer camp,
Justin Chancellor (from
Maynard James Keenan's
other band) and
Scott Kirkland (
the Crystal Method) amplify the bass and danceability of the original on "UPGrade";
Troy Van Leeuwen (
QOTSA/
APC/
Failure) and his
Gone Is Gone bandmate
Tony Hajjar rework "Grey Area" into an electro-industrial lurcher; and
Phantogram buffers "Postulous" with hazy atmospherics and menacing energy. One of the most drastic reimaginings comes from the unlikely source of
Bring Me the Horizon's
Jordan Fish and studio drummer
Sarah Jones on the electrified "Theorem," which is given new life with a frantic techno spin fit for an electronic dance festival. However, leave it to the award-winning pair of
Trent Reznor and
Atticus Ross to completely elevate this collection with their pulse-pounding, 11-minute version of "Apocalyptical," which sounds exactly like what one would expect from a collision of
Puscifer and late-era
NIN, down to the characteristic guitars, haunted melodies, and throbbing heartbeat. The most surprising thing about
Re-Wired is that it's not "just" a throwaway remix album (especially for a group that always produces solid companion sets to their studio LPs). What's shocking is that -- depending on the listener -- this might be even better than the original. ~ Neil Z. Yeung
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