Calling Static-X the Terminator of contemporary rock music may seem like an obvious comparison: The band's blunt-force-trauma melding of industrial rock, thrash metal and futuristic disco is nothing if not cybernetic. But when you look back at Static-X's 13-year legacy, the comparison goes well beyond the musical: Since the 1999 release of their platinum-certified Warner Bros. debut, Wisconsin Death Trip, the Los Angeles quartet have weathered musical trends, survived lineup shifts, and even severed longtime creative partnerships to emerge as the streamlined metallic machine they are today; and with their fifth studio album, Cannibal, they sound positively indestructible. Comprising 12 of the harshest, most stripped-down tracks Static-X have ever recorded, Cannibal also finds frontman Wayne Static & Co. sounding leaner and meaner than they have in years—a change the vertical-haired guitarist, vocalist and chief songwriter attributes to the back-to-basics approach they took to...