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.
Death
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Dream the whole week.
Radiance.
Hissing rodents speak.
Elective evil once started.
Shot struck home.
So it goes.
On all fours.
Drawn and racked.
Doesn't mean a thing.
Nature perverts itself.
So it goes.
So what the hell?
Let it grow.
Resist so full of haste coming sneer (clear).
Piss in blood.
No one should ever have to.
Cut.
Assemble.
Resembled.
Played out wording.
Disturbing.
Quiet saying.
Relaying.
A message raising.
Cain's revenge.
Got a few.
No fucking whacked.
House of cards.
Dealing smack.
Crimson folding.
Driving told.
I'm never holding one thing back.
Credit full of nothing.
Slither.
Here the one thing's back.
Licking dogs.
No hook.
No song.
Feeling high.
Fantasize.
Wonder why.
Suck them dry.
Choppy waves.
Take a dive.
Crash.
Enable.
Disabled.
Effect not carried.
No power in.
Quiet playing.
Re-saying.
Never more and never again.
Distort the monomaniac delivering the blow.
Core.
Rotted bone.
Distort the monomaniac.
Black mass held upon the radio.
Doesn't mean a thing.
Be it what or ever could.
Doesn't mean a thing.
Sinister creation.
Doesn't mean a thing.
Evocation of the dead.
Moses forbidding it.
Doesn't mean a thing.
Doesn't mean a thing.
Worm like ticking aren't worth shit.
We play upon the things we fear.
The smell is foul.
Where does it fit?
Screw yourself.
Go screw yourself.
No one should ever have to.
How do you sleep when it's still alive ?
Never too deep.
Take a look inside.
The song "Death" by Skinny Puppy features cryptic, abstract lyrics that are open to interpretation. The song invokes a sense of horror and dread with its eerie soundscape and distorted vocals. The lyrics paint a picture of a world gone wrong, where evil and violence are pervasive and nature has become perverted.
In the first stanza, the repeated phrase "So it goes" suggests a resigned acceptance of a violent or tragic event. The juxtaposition of "radiance" and "hissing rodents" creates a sense of confusion and disorientation. The phrase "elective evil once started" implies that evil is a choice, and that there is someone or something responsible for starting it.
The second stanza describes a physical transformation, as the singer shifts from standing to crawling. The phrase "nature perverts itself" suggests that the natural order has been disrupted, leading to chaos and confusion. The repetition of "so what the hell?" emphasizes the singer's frustration and confusion over what is happening. The final line "no one should ever have to" implies a sense of compassion or empathy for those who are suffering.
The third stanza features abstract phrases and imagery, referencing "Cain's revenge" and a "black mass" held on the radio. The repetition of "doesn't mean a thing" creates a sense of nihilism or hopelessness, suggesting that there is no meaning to the violence and chaos in the world. The final lines pose a series of rhetorical questions, suggesting that the listener should take a look inside themselves to confront the violence and fear within.
Line by Line Meaning
Holding his hands.
The start of a dream sequence.
Dream the whole week.
The dream being experienced for an extended period of time.
Radiance.
A bright light shining in the distance.
Hissing rodents speak.
The rats being a representation of the artist's fears.
Elective evil once started.
An evil act that was chosen and not accidental.
Shot struck home.
A gunshot that hit its intended target.
So it goes.
A phrase used to indicate acceptance of things that happen.
Inches towards flattened back.
Slowly moving towards a defeated position.
On all fours.
Being on hands and knees, submissive.
Drawn and racked.
Feeling stretched to a breaking point.
Doesn't mean a thing.
A phrase questioning the value or importance of something.
Nature perverts itself.
The natural order of things becoming disturbed or corrupt.
So what the hell?
An expression of confusion or frustration.
Let it grow.
Encouragement to allow something to develop or progress.
Resist so full of haste coming sneer (clear).
A warning to be aware of hostility.
Piss in blood.
A vulgar, violent way of expressing intense anger.
No one should ever have to.
A belief that everyone deserves basic human decency.
Cut.
The editing process of a production.
Assemble.
Putting the parts of the creation together.
Resembled.
The end product being similar to the original idea.
Played out wording.
Repetitive words or phrases that have lost their meaning.
Disturbing.
Something that causes discomfort or unease.
Quiet saying.
A phrase spoken softly or subtly.
Relaying.
Communicating a message.
A message raising.
Attempting to bring attention to an issue.
Cain's revenge.
Revengeful actions taken.
Got a few.
Having a few of something.
No fucking whacked.
Having no issues or negative consequences.
House of cards.
A structure that can easily collapse or fall apart.
Dealing smack.
Distributing drugs.
Crimson folding.
An action done with bloody hands.
Driving told.
Following instructions or being controlled.
I'm never holding one thing back.
Living without regrets, being authentic.
Credit full of nothing.
Having no value, fake.
Slither.
Moving in a sneaky or suspicious way.
Here the one thing's back.
The return of something previously lost or forgotten.
Licking dogs.
People who are untrustworthy or subservient.
No hook.
Having no enticing factor or appeal.
No song.
A lack of meaningful words or expression.
Feeling high.
A euphoric sensation or being in a state of elation.
Fantasize.
Indulging in unrealistic or idealistic scenarios.
Wonder why.
Questioning the reason for something.
Suck them dry.
Taking advantage of someone's resources or energy until it's gone.
Choppy waves.
An unpredictable or turbulent situation.
Take a dive.
To intentionally fail or fall.
Crash.
The moment when something comes to a sudden, violent stop.
Enable.
Allowing something to happen or function.
Disabled.
Incapable of functioning or working properly.
Effect not carried.
The desired outcome not being achieved despite an attempt at change or action.
No power in.
Lacking control or influence over a situation.
Quiet playing.
Soft, subtle sound or movement.
Re-saying.
Repeating something that has already been said or stated.
Never more and never again.
An end to something, never to be repeated.
Distort the monomaniac delivering the blow.
An attempt to change or alter the actions of a person who is obsessive or fanatically focused on their goal.
Core.
The central part of something that everything else revolves around.
Rotted bone.
Something that was once strong, now destroyed and decayed.
Distort the monomaniac.
Attempting to change the obsessive way of thinking of the person delivering the blow.
Black mass held upon the radio.
Negative energy perpetuated through media outlets.
Be it what or ever could.
Wondering about the potential possibilities of something.
Sinister creation.
Something made with deception or an evil intent.
Evocation of the dead.
Attempting to raise or contact the deceased.
Moses forbidding it.
The idea of something being prohibited, due to religious beliefs.
Worm like ticking aren't worth shit.
Low quality or unimportant things.
We play upon the things we fear.
Allowing fear to control or decide our actions.
The smell is foul.
Describing a repulsive scent.
Where does it fit?
Questioning the place or purpose of something.
Screw yourself.
Insulting or disregarding someone else's opinion or feelings.
Go screw yourself.
An even more aggressive insult or dismissal.
How do you sleep when it's still alive ?
Expressing guilt or an uneasy conscience about a troubling situation.
Never too deep.
Not wanting to get too emotionally invested in a situation.
Take a look inside.
Suggesting self-reflection or self-evaluation as a means of solving a problem.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CHARLES CAVE, ETHAN KATH, HARRY MCVEIGH, JACK BROWN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind