Inspired by the groundbreaking music of Chrome, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Portion Control, The Legendary Pink Dots, and others, Skinny Puppy experimented with electronic recording techniques and methods. the band composed multi-layered music generally using keyboards, synthesizers, found sounds, drum machines, live percussion, tape splices, samplers, and conventional rock music instruments. Whereas many contemporary remixes and re-edits of songs were created in order to make a song more suitable for dancing or different radio formats, Skinny Puppy approached remixing and re-editing as an artistic process of reinterpreting compositions, often using remixes to push their sound into styles of ambient, dub and techno. Skinny Puppy's often informal, improvisational approach to musical composition is indicated by use of the term brap, coined by them and defined as a verb meaning "to get together, hook up electronic instruments, get high, and record".
Skinny Puppy's first two proper releases, Bites and Remission, fall somewhere between the found-sound chaos of early Cabaret Voltaire and the abrasive, futuristic synthpop of the Units or Crash Course in Science. While the intense synth programming, abstract rhythms, and surreal samples--all Puppy trademarks--are present here, the albums owe as much to new wave as to industrial.
A subsequent EP, Chainsaw, featured a remix of Bites's "Assimilate" that earned the band some attention from club DJs. 1986's Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse earned Skinny Puppy greater attention, as "Dig It" and "Stairs and Flowers" became alternative club and college radio hits; the video for the former was played occasionally on MTV. The album is arguably less club-friendly than its predecessors, as the band continues to refine a claustrophobic, almost surreal sound that buries rhythm and melody. The follow-up, Cleanse, Fold, and Manipulate treads similar territory.
VIVIsectVI was a breakthrough for the band, with "Testure" becoming their biggest club hit to date, and the album itself was received warmly by college radio. The title of the album was a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism (ie. the "666 sect"). The album shows SP integrating more political and social themes: "Testure" is an animal rights song; "VX Gas Attack" concerns the use of chemical weapons; "State Aid" promotes sexual abstinence to stop the spread of AIDS/HIV.
Ogre had become very interested in Ministry and Al Jougensen's side projects, and he persuaded the rest of the band to allow Jourgensen to produce Rabies. While "Worlock" (a track Jourgensen didn't produce) remains an industrial club classic, the album was received coolly, as many thought Jourgensen's heavy metal guitar-based signatures did not compliment SP's more complex, intricate sonic sculptures. The band briefly disbanded afterward.
They reformed and returned to their electronic roots with Too Dark Park, a hallucinogenic album that owes as much to psychedelia as industrial music. Two years later, "Last Rights" covered similar territory, culminating in the epic sound sculpture "Download." Although their sound had moved away from industrial dance, these albums expanded the band's audience, and provided the template for many industrial bands of the 1990s.
Following "Last Rights", the band, poised for a major breakthrough in the wake of Nine Inch Nails' commercial success, left their longtime label Nettwerk for American Recordings. Their highly anticipated followup was unfortunately marred by personal tragedy - the death of Dwayne Goettel - and the band's inability to agree on a direction for the record. Numerous producers, including Martyn Atkins (PigFace/Invisible Records founder) and Roli Mosimann (Swans), came and went without success; finally the band regrouped with longtime collaborator Dave "Rave" Ogilvie to finish "The Process". The band expanded their range, working with gothic pop and heavy metal, alongside their familiar electronic textures. While seemingly rushed to completion following Goettel's death (it sounds half-finished in parts), it is an interesting change for the group. Unfortunately American Recordings, tired of waiting for the record, did little to promote it. Skinny Puppy broke up afterward.
With interests in filmmaking, they made a number of music videos, each attempting to further the theme and concept of the composition at hand. Most of these videos received little air play by major music video networks such as MTV (USA) and MuchMusic (Canada) and some were outright banned. For example the video for "Worlock" was universally banned because it is a "non stop gore fest" of clips from various horror movies. Because none of these clips were authorized for usage in the video it has never been commercially available.
Their concerts have been marked by their bizarre and bloody conceptual performance art, which for every concert was planned with the intention of challenging the notions of all who observed. Their music had some acceptance in dance clubs because of its danceable beats, but had little play on commercial radio. Skinny Puppy had little commercial success outside of Canada, but their influence on industrial music is immense.
The band began with the intention of doing something "raw" and "real." Ogre's vocals, one of Skinny Puppy's most recognizable features, are typically roughly growled snarls of half-sentences and fragmented stream of consciousness. Lyrical themes included animal rights, politics, religion, horror, drug abuse, disease, and environmental degradation; these themes were often lyrically and conceptually intertwined. Other core aspects of the Skinny Puppy sound include the mixture of heavy sampling and experimental noise with softer musical styles sometimes approaching synthpop.
Post-punk politics are a recurring theme utilised by Skinny Puppy. Some say the meaning of their name is that their music and lyrics give a view of the world from the eyes of a starving animal. They have long had an interest in animal rights; this is most obvious in their song Testure, which is about vivisection and other animal testing being scientific fraud. During many of their concerts Ogre would take the role of "scientist" and experiment on a stuffed animal. In 1988 they were arrested for their mocked-up vivisections, and found it ironic to be arrested for a parody of what was happening for real across the street from their concert. During their TGWOTR tour, criticism of the Bush regime was a recurring theme, particularly during their performance of VX Gas Attack, a song about atrocities perpetrated by Saddam Hussein, originally released while he was still considered an ally of the United States.
The last two studio albums are points of contention for old school Puppy fans. During the recording of The Process, the band broke up. Even more tragically, Dwayne Rudolph Goettel died, from an apparent heroin overdose at his parent's home, soon afterwards. Some people say that cEvin, Nivek, and Dwayne didn't connect as well on this album as they had earlier because their respective musical interests were diverging at the time, others claim it was the heroin.
Key and Ogre later reunited as Skinny Puppy for a one-off concert in Germany in 2003. Afterwards, they decided Skinny Puppy should continue as an ongoing project. The newly reconstituted Skinny Puppy released The Greater Wrong of the Right in 2004, their first studio album in 8 years, and have been continuing since, constantly evolving their sound.
There have been a number of Skinny Puppy side projects, both before, and after the breakup in 1995. The Tear Garden is a collaboration between cEvin and Edward Ka-Spel (and later most band members) of The Legendary Pink Dots. Other noteable side projects include Download, Hilt, Plateau, Cyberaktif (a collaboration between Key & Goettel and Bill Leeb, a.k.a. Wilhelm Schroeder), Rx (one-off collaboration between Ogre and Martin Atkins), ADuck (Goettel's side project), A CHUD Convention (one-off collaboration with a;GRUHM...), Ogre's contributions to Pigface, Ogre and Mark Walk's band ohGr and solo releases from cEvin Key.
Addiction
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Deranged
Talking in my sleep again
Eyes twitch
Retain
A sentimental something
Looked lorn
And we burned and burned
Breakdown amid the mixtures
Avoid addictive plea
Responding disillusion
Encrusted cruelty
describe why nails enclose me
Eating so easily
There exists a lot of reasons
To support fatality
Abstinence
Possessed
Hardly
What you think it is
Hearts beat positive
Provided there's progress
Ignorance
Does insist of the right coffin
Took some food offered me
Can't see myself
Drank the wine
Wished the feverish burst of terror
Breakdown amid the mixtures
Avoid addictive plea
Insist that nothing happened
Chilled, bloodless fatigue
Recharge with bitterness
Fanatics beckoning
Mistook a look impassioned
Absorbed with clarity
Consciousness drifts away
Discarded memory
Packaged shelf life bad display
Breakdown amid the mixtures
Avoid addictive plea
Excessive neuromances
Comfort is treachery
So pound the nails in tight
Eyes screaming out of sight
Against a grain-like curtain
Unbearably alive
The lyrics of Addiction by Skinny Puppy describe the inner turmoil of a person caught in the throes of addiction. The song gives glimpses into the dark psyche of someone who is struggling with substance abuse, and the feelings of desperation and despair that come along with it.
The opening lines create an image of someone who is tormented by their addiction even in their dreams, their eyes twitching and their mind consumed by a "sentimental something". The next few lines describe the cycle of addiction, how the person has burned and been burned, reduced to a cinder of body and soul.
As the song progresses, the lyrics delve deeper into the psychological aspects of addiction. The person is conscious of their problem but unable to break free, responding with disillusion to every attempt at abstinence. They describe feeling trapped and encased by their addiction, unable to escape its hold. The line "Comfort is treachery" speaks to the idea that even though addiction may feel like a refuge in the moment, it ultimately leads to pain and destruction.
Overall, Addiction paints a stark portrait of what it feels like to be caught in the grip of addiction, an unrelenting force that consumes everything in its path.
Line by Line Meaning
Desperate
Feeling a great sense of despair and hopelessness.
Deranged
Mentally disturbed and out of touch with reality.
Talking in my sleep again
Unconsciously revealing thoughts or feelings that are normally kept hidden.
Eyes twitch
Experiencing involuntary contractions of the muscles around the eyes.
Retain
Holding on to and preserving something in the mind or memory.
A sentimental something
Something with emotional value or importance.
Looked lorn
Appeared sad and lonely.
And we burned and burned
Experiencing intense emotional and psychological pain or suffering.
I was a cinder body soul in my dreams
Feeling completely consumed and destroyed by addiction in one's dreams.
Breakdown amid the mixtures
Experiencing a mental and emotional breakdown due to the combination of addictive substances.
Avoid addictive plea
Ignoring the urge to give in to addiction and avoiding seeking help.
Responding disillusion
Feeling disappointed and deceived by addiction's false promises.
Encrusted cruelty
Experiencing the harsh and unforgiving effects of addiction.
describe why nails enclose me
Questioning why addiction seems to grip and hold onto one's mind and body.
Eating so easily
Giving in to addiction without resistance or hesitation.
There exists a lot of reasons
There are many factors and circumstances that can lead to addiction.
To support fatality
Contributing to a destructive path that could ultimately lead to death.
Abstinence
Choosing to not give in to addiction and instead practicing self-control.
Possessed
Being completely under addiction's control and influence.
Hardly
Difficult to comprehend or understand.
What you think it is
Not being what it seems or appears to be.
Hearts beat positive
Feeling hopeful and optimistic about overcoming addiction.
Provided there's progress
Only making progress towards recovery if one actively works towards it.
Ignorance
Being unaware or uninformed about the reality of addiction.
Does insist of the right coffin
Stressing the importance of making the right choices in life and avoiding destructive behavior like addiction.
Took some food offered me
Receiving and accepting help or support from others towards overcoming addiction.
Can't see myself
Being unable to recognize oneself due to the effects of addiction.
Drank the wine
Giving in to the temptation of addiction and indulging in it.
Wished the feverish burst of terror
Feeling a sense of relief after experiencing the intense pain and suffering of addiction.
Excessive neuromances
Being lured into addiction by the pleasurable effects it can have.
Comfort is treachery
Becoming too comfortable with addiction or the idea of it can be dangerous and deceptive.
So pound the nails in tight
Urging oneself to resist the temptation of addiction and stay strong.
Eyes screaming out of sight
Feeling trapped and helpless due to the effects of addiction.
Against a grain-like curtain
Facing resistance and obstacles when trying to overcome addiction.
Unbearably alive
Feeling overwhelmed and consumed by the intensity of addiction and its effects.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Hikaru Utada
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@ilovetacos210
I mostly love how this song has the ability to fill my entire room with sound even when I'm currently listening to it on a cheap BT speaker.
@brianalls9371
Nice to see a handful of my SP brethren are out there. I liked this song as a child... came back as an adult and now I can't stop listening
@erikhermansen3431
I grew up in suburban Kansas in the 90's. Finding someone else that liked SP was like finding a unicorn. Finding someone my own age that liked it never happened, unless I introduced them to it.
@annireverie3560
Same here - I got (and I still am) totally obsessed with SP in the past, mostly alone. Many of my friends didn't like their music. But it was ok for me, it's not for everyone. Few people are happy that I introduced SP to them 🤘🏻
@lynnenewton
Absolutely one of the best from SP, you can dance your ass off to this song,,,
@michaelreuther1162
yeah feet on the ground and head in the clouds. :)
@ricktherrien8235
Haha love this comment, a true eighties and nineties prodigy.
Shake it you won’t brake it.
@jmp01a24
I preferred smoking a big bong of hashish and sit all still in my chair, letting my ears and head get soaked into the beats and soundscape. I miss those days. It was so fresh.
@swinehorde9118
If you live on this edge, you know no edge further. Addiction is rock bottom.
@jmp01a24
Huge classic. Been a fan since the 80's. This song is still one of my favourites. Awesome mood, lyrics and execution. The beat is hypnotic. Vocal is emotional and to the point, no fuzz and warm blankets, cold, like its cut out of the speakers with a sharp surgical knife. 🔌🎹❌⚫