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.
Nature's Revenge
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
broken down road
continue on coexistance
imitating paradise
unlike any seen moist
has been dancing
crazy overcast ash grey wording
constantly pushing pulling pushes away
Sample: scared? I'm not scared. Hm. What are you?
drew back a rusty knife guilt ladle pour it on
understand i burn inside
how to get out of here
how do you get out of this
natures revenge
nature
Sample: scared?
cage craving wonder
the worth of it scream at the top of your lungs
so many times tried not to wonder
so many times tried not to wonder
so many times tried not to wonder
Sample: scared? Yeah we are.
The lyrics of Skinny Puppy's "Nature's Revenge" give off a feeling of uneasiness and foreboding, with the use of weather and natural imagery to show the power of nature and its potential wrath. The first few lines describe the weather turning towards a storm and a broken road, but the singer continues on in coexistence with this force, almost imitating paradise or trying to find beauty in the chaos. The moistness and dancing mentioned seems almost eerie, with an overcast and ash grey setting making the scene feel more ominous. The repeated phrase of "constantly pushing pulling pushes away" seems to allude to a struggle against these natural forces.
The sample of "scared?" throughout the song adds to the unease of the lyrics, with the singer seemingly trying to reassure themselves and others that they are not afraid, but the repeated questioning of fear implies otherwise. The lines "drew back a rusty knife guilt ladle pour it on / understand i burn inside / how to get out of here / how do you get out of this" show a darker side to the struggle, with the singer feeling trapped and desperate to escape. The repetition of "natures revenge / nature" emphasizes the power and danger of natural forces, while also giving a sense of inevitable consequence.
Line by Line Meaning
weather turning towards a storm
The weather is changing in a way that suggests a storm is approaching.
broken down road
The road is in disrepair and not functioning properly.
continue on coexistance
Keep moving forward in harmony with the world around you.
imitating paradise
Trying to copy an idyllic state of being.
unlike any seen moist
Completely unique in its wetness.
has been dancing
Has been moving rhythmically.
crazy overcast ash grey wording
The way the sky looks is uncharacteristically oppressive and the words describing it are appropriate in tone.
constantly pushing pulling pushes away
Being ambivalent about a situation leads to pushing others away.
drew back a rusty knife guilt ladle pour it on
Reacting to an argument violently and feeling guilty afterwards.
understand i burn inside
Emotionally hurting and in pain.
how to get out of here
Wanting to escape from a difficult situation.
how do you get out of this
Asking for advice on how to escape from a difficult situation.
natures revenge
Nature is taking action to retaliate against humans for damaging the world.
nature
The natural world and its power.
cage craving wonder
Feeling trapped and wanting to explore the unknown.
the worth of it scream at the top of your lungs
The value of something is worth shouting about.
so many times tried not to wonder
Attempting to avoid thinking about something many times.
so many times tried not to wonder
Attempting to avoid thinking about something many times.
so many times tried not to wonder
Attempting to avoid thinking about something many times.
scared?
The emotions of fear and apprehension.
Contributed by Ian J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.