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.
Cult
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The scent of time.
Tried and tested,
I never noticed the phantoms of her mind. Crescent moon.
I am cutting through.
Paste up warnings fill the sky,
Smoking embers,
I remember.
to sink within her.
I think of light.
Time to blame,
to borrow from your past.
Elapse collapsing.
She's not insane.
She's gone insane.
And if the root of silence pulls me up (off),
and love is lost not from my heart,
I'll sit upon this throne that throws me off.
And she falls backwards to the floor,
And forwards to the back.
She says elapses all my truth again.
She's the one I live for.
I live alone.
I live alone.
Cutting through.
She's not insane.
I live alone.
I live alone.
She's the one I live for.
I live alone
Burns inside horribly.
She lifts me to the spirit burns.
The darkest hours.
My corrupt brain is hurting.
Once again the door lies quiet.
Left alone I'm thinking of her.
Sitting.
The burning clock of time.
The lyrics to Skinny Puppy's "Cult" seem to be exploring the aftermath of a relationship that has ended poorly, leaving the singer feeling alone and reflecting on what went wrong. The line "A lasting moment to hold onto with regret" implies that there is a memory or experience that the singer is clinging to, but with the knowledge that it caused pain. The mention of the "phantoms of her mind" suggests that the relationship may have been burdened by mental health issues or other inner struggles that were not fully acknowledged at the time. The contrast between "trying to live in light" and "sinking within her" speaks to the conflict between wanting to move on and feeling drawn back into the past.
In the second verse, the idea of time being a factor in the relationship's demise is brought up again, with the phrase "time to blame." The singer seems to be struggling to let go of the past, with the line "elapse collapsing" suggesting a sense of things slipping away or falling apart. The repetition of "She's not insane, she's gone insane" is haunting and ambiguous, leaving the listener to wonder who is being referred to and what happened to them. In the final lines, the theme of isolation and loneliness is reinforced, with the singer declaring that they live alone and are left with nothing but their own painful thoughts.
Line by Line Meaning
A lasting moment to hold onto with regret.
I have a memory that I can't forget, but it's one that makes me feel sad and remorseful.
The scent of time.
Time can be sensed like a smell in the air, something that you can almost taste.
Tried and tested, I never noticed the phantoms of her mind.
I thought I knew her well, but I never realized the deep emotional pain she was experiencing.
Crescent moon. I am cutting through.
The night is dark and ominous, but I am trying to push through and find a way out.
Paste up warnings fill the sky, smoking embers, I remember.
There are warnings and danger all around me, and I am struggling to recall past experiences to help me navigate this current situation.
Time and time again to try to live in light, to sink within her. I think of light.
I keep trying to be positive and hopeful, to find light in the darkness, but I am constantly drawn back into her world of pain and fear.
Time to blame, to borrow from your past. Elapse collapsing.
I am looking for someone or something to blame for my current situation, and my sense of time is slipping away and causing me to feel like everything is falling apart.
She's not insane. She's gone insane.
I used to think she was just troubled, but her mental state has deteriorated to the point of madness.
And if the root of silence pulls me up (off), and love is lost not from my heart, I'll sit upon this throne that throws me off.
If my desire for peace and quiet becomes overwhelming and I lose my ability to love, I will become isolated and disconnected from the world.
And she falls backwards to the floor, and forwards to the back. She says elapses all my truth again. She's the one I live for. I live alone. I live alone. Cutting through.
She is spiraling out of control, and I am trying to hold on and keep myself together, even though I feel completely alone and cut off from everything else.
Burns inside horribly. She lifts me to the spirit burns. The darkest hours. My corrupt brain is hurting.
I am in pain and distress, and she is the only one who can help me find some sense of solace or escape.
Once again the door lies quiet. Left alone I'm thinking of her. Sitting. The burning clock of time.
I am stuck in this moment, and time is ticking away without any clear direction or guidance.
She's not insane. I live alone. I live alone. She's the one I live for. I live alone
My thoughts are consumed by her, even though she is no longer a part of my life, and I am struggling to find any sense of companionship or support.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
gothsteeze
The staticy electronic overload that kicks in during the climax of the song gives me chills & goosebumps every time bumping this banger on good headphones.
And if the root of silence pulls me off
And love is lost not from my heart
I sit upon this throne that throws me off
And she falls backward to the floor
And forward to the back
She says elapses all my truth again
She's the one I live for
I live alone
Adeptus Astartes
This was the first CD I ever bought. I remember walking into a CD Warehouse, this song playing over the speaker system. I was about 13 years old and asked the lady "Who is this?" She pulled it out of the CD-player and gave it to me. She said I wouldn't find it for sale here and since it had one of the parental sticker things she said she couldn't sale it to me. She left it on the counter and told me to take it.
kalloused
Man this takes me back to being in junior high, I would stay up at night listening to this realizing there was a whole new world in music. Never knowing music could be so dark and erie. I would stay up all night listening to this, in goosebumps the whole time.
Bobby .D
Truly one of my most favorite Skinny Puppy tracks. From the very first time I heard this, I felt as if it was Ohgr's Love song. It was mainly, because of such a huge separation I was dealing with... I did love her the, during the split, and after our break up. She was the one I felt I was living for. Thank you to anyone who took time to read this. Thank you Ohgr, Key, and Dwayne. Rest in peace Dwayne. I always have you on my mind.
Bobby .D
Correction! "...I did love her **THEN**..."
Raoul Gonzalez
Welcome. Far too frail
Vico
I always thought that music is our best friend during hard times
Derek Cyman
Beautiful
kalloused
This is such a beautiful album, the most original of any industrial out there. This album fills you with emotion you never knew existed
Niksa Dzordeski
For me, this album is all about "candle", "cult" and "amnesia". There are strange beautiful and poetic vibrations in these three songs.
photondance
one of the best songs ever recorded.