Remix albums are a tricky business. Botch it up and you’ll turn off fans of the original versions of the songs. Hedge your bets and people will end up asking why the remixes were even done in the first place. Ultimately, remixes have to walk a fine line between homage and innovation, at least in most cases. There are always examples of remixes that completely dismantle the original songs to the point of abstraction and then rebuild something new from there.

Filter’s Remixes For The Damned falls somewhere in a middle ground, one that’s populated by some nice dance-y beats, but is also filled with some stripped down surprises. That Filter would do an album’s worth of remixes is not particularly surprising. Their early industrial roots meant that their music lent itself well to the remix and during their hey-day in the 90s, a number of their hits received the knob-turning treatment. That they would release a full record of remixes now (after being relatively absent from music for six years) seems a little odd. Or perhaps it’s just unusual to already have newish material after the release of Anthems For The Damned in May.

At any rate, here’s the basic math on this digital-only release: Of the twelve songs that were featured on Anthems, tweaked versions of nine turn up on Remixes. And yet there are fifteen tracks on Remixes. So obviously a few of the songs pull double-duty here (“Soliders Of Misfortune” and “Kill The Day” wins the prize at three different versions each).

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Most of the remixes are varied enough from one another and the spacing of the sequencing means that it doesn’t feel like you’re simply listening to the same songs over and over again. A few of the remixes sound especially inspired by stripping down the songs to simple vocals and light instrumentation, backed by a good beat or drum machine. It might not sound like it would work, but it does.

In the end, your appreciation of this project will come down to how much you like Filter and/or Anthems. If you count yourself in the fan column in either of those categories, then you’ll likely dig this. If not, then you might want to check out a couple of tracks to test the waters before taking the plunge and buying the whole thing.