Skinny Puppy will embark on a 29-date North American tour early next year dubbed “Shapes for Arms” in support of the band’s current album Weapon, a concept record described as commentary on “the concurrent glorification of the gun culture and simultaneous horror at the devastation guns can cause.”

Electro-industrial cousins Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly both released brand-new studio albums this year, and Bill Leeb — who launched FLA after leaving Skinny Puppy in 1985 — has a pretty great idea: a North American “Monsters of Industrial” tour featuring both acts.

This week’s new releases include brand-new studio albums from Skinny Puppy (‘Weapon’), British Electric Foundation (‘Music of Quality and Distinction Vol. 3: Dark’) , The Stranglers (‘Giants’) and The Pastels (‘Slow Summits’), plus a Public Image Ltd. reissue and a box set from The Woodentops.

Metropolis Records is offering up the first taste of Weapon, the upcoming 12th studio album from Skinny Puppy, in the form of lead single “paragUn” — which you can now stream in full. Weapon is due out May 24 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, May 27 in the “rest of the world” and May 28 in North America.

Skinny Puppy return late next month with their 12th studio album in 30 years, a timely 10-song collection called Weapon that the band’s publicists say stands as a philosophical commentary on “the concurrent glorification of the gun culture and simultaneous horror at the devastation guns can cause.”

Today we continue with more results from our Readers Poll 2012, this time counting down the Top 10 compilations, box sets and live albums, with titles from the likes of World Party, James, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, Roxy Music, The Specials, Skinny Puppy, Duran Duran and more.