Reconstruction requires deconstruction. The institutions must be razed in order to clear space for the future to flourish. You tear down the old and build up the new. Filter founder, singer, guitarist, and producer Richard Patrick knows this dance well. It’s what established the group as a multiplatinum industrial alternative luminary, and it catalyzed their seventh full-length album, Crazy Eyes.

Rather than partner with a producer, Patrick took the reins and oversaw production himself. “You recognize it’s us from my aggression and singing, but the instrumentation had to change,” he admits. “It wasn’t about just stacking guitars like we might’ve done on the last couple records. There are way more electronics and sound design.”

He collaborated with old friends such as the man behind 1999’s seminal platinum-certified Title of Record, producer Ben Grosse [Thirty Seconds To Mars, Marilyn Manson], and Michael “Blumpy” Tuller [Nine Inch Nails]. He also worked closely with new band mates Oumi Kapila [guitar, programming], Ashley Dzerigian [bass], Chris Reeve [drums], and Bobby Miller [keyboards], and former Filter bandmates, Johnny Radke and Danny Lohner. Mixed by Brian Virtue (Janes Addiction, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Deftones) and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Van Halen, Mars Volta, The White Stripes).

It’s just another step on a career defined by smashing boundaries. In 1995, Filter emerged as one of industrial’s most vibrant, vivid, and vitriolic voices on Short Bus. The record introduced the world to the immortal “Hey Man Nice Shot” and eventually went platinum. Title of Record would reach the same heights on the fuel of singles “Take A Picture” and “Welcome to the Fold” as following albums The Amalgamut [2002], Anthems for the Damned [2008], and The Trouble with Angels [2010] would see them continue to evolve. Along the way, they’d receive high-profile placements, including “(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do” with The Crystal Method on The Spawn Soundtrack. Most recently the album, The Sun Comes Out Tonight (2013) drew critical and peer acclaim with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor even taking to Twitter to proclaim his admiration.