The Stabbing Westward question is an interesting one. Through the '90s the band progressed steadily away from its Nine Inch Nails-ripoff roots; its last record, its best, featured almost no electronics, focusing instead on natural textures, quality songwriting, and dynamics. It didn't sell well.

The Dreaming flirted with industrial at first but wisely decided to move forward. Etched in Blood takes the sound of that final Stabbing effort, removes the acoustic guitars and affixes an aggressive punk/metal edge. There's plenty of "soft verse/heavy chorus" '90s alternative here for those who hate change ("Let It Burn," "Disconnected"), but songs like "Sticks and Stones" include both more energy and better guitar solos than anything Hall has previously been involved with. "Eating Me Alive" outright swaggers, with big, chunky guitar riffs.

Can the man claw his way back to where he was before? Stranger things have happened, and Etched in Blood comprises 12 radio-ready, catchy-as-hell tracks � a few have cheesy, cliched or overdramatic lyrics, but that never stopped anyone's success. The words to "Ugly" fall into all three categories, and it was chosen for the Elektra soundtrack (back when it was still named "Beautiful"). The current if waning popularity of punk-metal won't hurt, either.

When it comes to fans who bought the EPs, though, there will be a few complaints. They already own about a third of the record in some way, and while there are some improvements (the new version of "Ugly" puts the EP and Elektra ones to shame), some very odd decisions took place here.

One is that "Bleed," one of the group's best songs melodically, took a real beating. The faster tempo makes sense, and in keeping with the record's organic vibe, it was wise to kill the drum machine except for a quick intro. But the band could have done this without completely obliterating the huge dynamic shift from verse and chorus � between the too-loud drums in the verse and the chorus's too-quiet guitars (too quiet in the literal sense, and in that sustained chords have supplanted the aggressive chugging of the superior version), the music builds almost no intensity. It's a real shame.

Also, fans will miss � and newcomers won't realize they miss � one of the best and most heartfelt fingerpicked-acoustic songs in recent memory, "Fly Away." It would have worked well to conclude the record (an honor that instead belongs to "Send Me An Angel," a Real Life cover � New Wave turned into modern metal, how clever!), or to break up the heavier bits. Instead, the track is relegated to the dust bin, as the band doesn't seem to sell the EPs anymore. One can pick it up here, though.

All told, The Dreaming has put its best foot forward with Etched in Blood. It's well worth a buy or download, and it's got a few hit singles waiting to be found.