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.
Lahuman8
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Against
Twice
No sinking
Fevers…
Fortune
Suffocate
???
Force of evil heart
???
???the real
Lie, lying, lying there is evil brain
All she ever said
Not leaving
All she ever said
???
(odyssey?)
???
Nothing matters
???
Nothing matters
Wishful thinking
Parasitic junkie
Wraps the noose
Cries the blues
To whoever looks and listens
To a bunch pass spaces turned away
???brain???
No word shall shake my faith
Dead poet with the head that rots in the grave
???leave me alone
Pushes hand up through the earth
Towards the sky
Reaching high
Dead poet
Said once
Once was enough
Time to lie
Time to die
Reaching up towards the sky
As she says once again
Turning me alone
So I left it alone
Leave me alone
Leave me alone
???
(she sits?)
???
???down the stairs
Towards the door
She walks up the stairs
So there
All alone
The lyrics to Skinny Puppy's "Lahuman8" are cryptic and open to interpretation, but there are a few themes that seem to emerge. The song includes references to passion, sinking, suffocation, and death, as well as a line about a "force of evil heart." The repeated refrain of "all she ever said" suggests a sense of repetition or helplessness, perhaps in the face of an oppressive force. The dead poet with the rotting head could be a symbol of creative potential cut short or a warning about the dangers of addiction and decay.
Overall, the song seems to be grappling with existential questions about life, death, and the nature of reality. The lines about wishing for things that don't matter and the reference to a parasitic junkie suggest a sense of disillusionment or nihilism. The repeated request to be left alone could represent a desire for solitude or freedom, or it could suggest a fear of being trapped or controlled by external forces.
Line by Line Meaning
Within Passions (Of the?) Sounds
Amidst the various compelling sounds of life
Against
Opposing something
Twice
Two times, repetition
No sinking
Not letting oneself fall or sink
Fevers…
Intense feelings/mental state
Fortune
Luck or fate
Suffocate
Feeling trapped or smothered
???
Unknown/unclear
All shes ever said
Everything she's ever uttered
Force of evil heart
The power or influence of a malevolent heart
???
Unknown/unclear
???the real
Hidden or obscured reality
Lie, lying, lying there is evil brain
Deception, falsehoods, and deceit corrupt the mind
All she ever said
Repetition of her words
Not leaving
Not departing or moving away
All she ever said
Continued utterances
???
Unknown/unclear
(odyssey?)
Possible reference to a long, eventful journey
???
Unknown/unclear
Nothing matters
Nothing holds significance or importance
???
Unknown/unclear
Nothing matters
Repeatedly emphasizing that there is no significance
Wishful thinking
Hopeful, yet unrealistic thoughts
Parasitic junkie
An addict who feeds off of others' resources
Wraps the noose
Putting oneself in a dire situation by one's own actions
Cries the blues
Feeling sorrowful, regretful, or troubled
To whoever looks and listens
Addressing those who pay attention
To a bunch pass spaces turned away
Speaking to those who avoided/ignored the message
???brain???
Unknown/unclear
No word shall shake my faith
Confidence in belief or trust, despite what others may say
Dead poet with the head that rots in the grave
A deceased writer whose legacy has been long forgotten
???leave me alone
Desire for solitude
Pushes hand up through the earth
Emerging from a metaphorical grave
Towards the sky
Reaching for something higher or greater
Reaching high
Striving with great effort to attain something
Dead poet
Describing the aforementioned deceased writer again
Said once
Expressed on one occasion
Once was enough
Experiencing something only once was sufficient
Time to lie
The moment to deceive
Time to die
The moment of death
Reaching up towards the sky
Again striving for something higher
As she says once again
Repetition of her words
Turning me alone
Causing solitude and separation
So I left it alone
The decision to abandon a situation or problem
Leave me alone
Request for isolation and detachment
Leave me alone
Continuing to request isolation and detachment
???
Unknown/unclear
(she sits?)
Possible reference to a female character or entity seated or still
???
Unknown/unclear
???down the stairs
Movement downwards via steps
Towards the door
Heading in the direction of the exit
She walks up the stairs
Ascension via steps
So there
Concluding statement or action
All alone
In solitude or without companionship
Contributed by Muhammad D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
STRIPPED MODE CHANNEL
😎👍
Antonios Koutsoyiannis
👁️👁️😱
Soul Manager
😅