Skinny Puppy was an influential industrial band, formed in 1982 by core mem… Read Full Bio ↴Skinny Puppy was an influential industrial band, formed in 1982 by core members cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton) and Nivek Ogre (ohGr) (Kevin Ogilvie) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They officially split up following the completion of their Final Tour on December 5, 2023.
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.
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.
Spahn Dirge
Skinny Puppy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴
hate??? you dream sees someone going that voice i
see i walks releases... someone the...darkened hate [who...
find/if] [i/he] were to come back and see he'll find a world all ???
[i/they] want is intelligence hes
gonna die all? [i/they] want is to learn exist
...oh she's... such a sweet thing no time to wonder over
...to no...[black/that]...corner in...[time judge?angel?]?what's
your name what's your name what's your name what's your game boy, no?
ones a judge so...many dreams dreams, locked...
out in the [ hole/house?]?envision black room [stringing screaming?singing?]?all
is this inspiration calling back to my bedroom eyes we'll see again no
...one to no they no they wont all...
that way all that way all that way fame
fortune fame fortune fame fortune no
more fail safe ways my, friend no more time to [play/blend] alone creeping
the crawl down trod [speak speed?]?this place hurts...back?
to my this...??? new mansion oh watch, this way hates!
...dreams...speaks came...back back...the?...
fortune and the fame better watch out fade away no
time for the fame missed
the boat better
wash it away wash it away back
to chicago go to chicago cause the levee breaks dear
...god im going insane dear god cause...?
the levee breaks oh she's in the bed oh?
...shitty city?go? to chicago baby
stealing...the word 1993
that's when we'll all be free it will overcome me back in 1993 go
to chicago the levee breaks you had your fun in the sun in 1971 but
now it's time to be free in nineteen hundred and ninety three money
bomb outside of nothing who is your releaser since
1969 was fine but 1999 will find us and make us climb to higher vines time go
to chicago go to chicago go cause the levee breaks and so does your head well
in plane ?has?
anybody seen the confounded bitch a .. -itch the? sex is great oh
my god i hope im not late ain't
that great eases away time
and time and time again turning
and turning and turning and burning Luc
Van Acker Luc Van Acker going
to chicago going going, coming, cause
the levee breaks so does your head watching
in the bands of daylight going there the
whips/lips hey?
ogre do, you think its time to go to bed or?
... has this song rushed through your fucking head levee?
... breaks so does your head hey
where, is that burning in your bed you
know what they say it's, time to melt next
time melt the fuse i
don't know what it is somebody said that this morning i know what they said where
is my murderer /mother?gun the?
jokes on you HAHAHAHAHAH the joke HAHAHAHAHAH come
here only one night look what happens we come and leave we?
come and and... the signs of disease HAHAHAHAHAH? drugs ...Dialogue?
in the background 00:
00:("you inspired snaps ??? that's ??? about tool ??? cut ??? him off ") ???05
29:(" um??? no, cut, that Wanna. talk about the return of electronic ") ???06
58:("you recording "?no im not "). ???08
41:(" category??? oh ??? my god are we going the ??? tour was great but we were fucked
Right. at the end of the tour is when they are Your. team was on that day committee ???
a ??? fucking- a ball of fucking little- little you know of Sonics" "Yeah" "The
sonic people ??? matter ??? to me You. look at like, number, 4 and 5 on the front too
??? long") 09
44:("I don't want that kid buying it Who. are the people ??? buying it Who? is the person
who's buying this Who? is this dude I? want people " ???"Why don't you sit down Why?
can't we get out of it "?"Just get fucked up instead of going around thinking about fucking
??? what ??? kind of kid paranoia ??? you ??? fucking antagonize" " scared??? of people
that's why you want me to sit down with you You. want people ??? ") ???11
18:(" he??? got a depth charge" " "???"I'm not a stoner" " "???"I'm not a stoner" "No ???
way man"), 12
50:("how many pidgeons can you fuck up the ass and scare while the country's sharked down
a fucking wind tunnel" "turn it on" "bunch of they'll ??? let anyone got out on the fucking
street " ???" song??? the ??? recording industry ") ???14
09:("Kasti Zana "?"Kasti Zununda "!"Kasti Zana "?"Ananda" "Kathy Sanda "?"Can't pronounce"
"Kathy Sananda" "What does that mean "?"that's like- that's like all- that's really
what all the Hindus tried to bomb sort ??? of You. guys What ???. they call existence
consciousness, bliss, That's. right You're. find- You're a sentient- You have existence
That's. like if ??? you have no control over it you find yourself like anybody being
on the planet" "I'm. born alive "." a??? condition of being on the planet is consciousness
A. condition of being that ??? it also but ??? the natural following the, natural
outcome of being ??? and having consciousness is ??? bliss That's. the natural "
???."Yeah but until mind ??? have wisdom not ??? being worth it There. are a lot of different
things-" "But- But I mean there are so many different things that go on there, are
so many confrontations about division that it- it's sure to do a lot of goodness that's ???
what it's all about Like. there is universal math" " but??? we don't follow up" "but
obvious- but obviously the imagery of a skyscraper Most ??? people hate that I ??? gotta
sit down and think about it ask later" "Ask later" "water bottled ??? rum" "punch
"?"hey man can I pull your stool "?"Can I push in your stool "?"Push in your stool")
see i walks releases... someone the...darkened hate [who...
find/if] [i/he] were to come back and see he'll find a world all ???
[i/they] want is intelligence hes
gonna die all? [i/they] want is to learn exist
...oh she's... such a sweet thing no time to wonder over
...to no...[black/that]...corner in...[time judge?angel?]?what's
your name what's your name what's your name what's your game boy, no?
out in the [ hole/house?]?envision black room [stringing screaming?singing?]?all
is this inspiration calling back to my bedroom eyes we'll see again no
...one to no they no they wont all...
that way all that way all that way fame
fortune fame fortune fame fortune no
more fail safe ways my, friend no more time to [play/blend] alone creeping
the crawl down trod [speak speed?]?this place hurts...back?
to my this...??? new mansion oh watch, this way hates!
...dreams...speaks came...back back...the?...
fortune and the fame better watch out fade away no
time for the fame missed
the boat better
wash it away wash it away back
to chicago go to chicago cause the levee breaks dear
...god im going insane dear god cause...?
the levee breaks oh she's in the bed oh?
...shitty city?go? to chicago baby
stealing...the word 1993
that's when we'll all be free it will overcome me back in 1993 go
to chicago the levee breaks you had your fun in the sun in 1971 but
now it's time to be free in nineteen hundred and ninety three money
bomb outside of nothing who is your releaser since
1969 was fine but 1999 will find us and make us climb to higher vines time go
to chicago go to chicago go cause the levee breaks and so does your head well
in plane ?has?
anybody seen the confounded bitch a .. -itch the? sex is great oh
my god i hope im not late ain't
that great eases away time
and time and time again turning
and turning and turning and burning Luc
Van Acker Luc Van Acker going
to chicago going going, coming, cause
the levee breaks so does your head watching
in the bands of daylight going there the
whips/lips hey?
ogre do, you think its time to go to bed or?
... has this song rushed through your fucking head levee?
... breaks so does your head hey
where, is that burning in your bed you
know what they say it's, time to melt next
time melt the fuse i
don't know what it is somebody said that this morning i know what they said where
is my murderer /mother?gun the?
jokes on you HAHAHAHAHAH the joke HAHAHAHAHAH come
here only one night look what happens we come and leave we?
come and and... the signs of disease HAHAHAHAHAH? drugs ...Dialogue?
in the background 00:
00:("you inspired snaps ??? that's ??? about tool ??? cut ??? him off ") ???05
29:(" um??? no, cut, that Wanna. talk about the return of electronic ") ???06
58:("you recording "?no im not "). ???08
41:(" category??? oh ??? my god are we going the ??? tour was great but we were fucked
Right. at the end of the tour is when they are Your. team was on that day committee ???
a ??? fucking- a ball of fucking little- little you know of Sonics" "Yeah" "The
sonic people ??? matter ??? to me You. look at like, number, 4 and 5 on the front too
??? long") 09
44:("I don't want that kid buying it Who. are the people ??? buying it Who? is the person
who's buying this Who? is this dude I? want people " ???"Why don't you sit down Why?
can't we get out of it "?"Just get fucked up instead of going around thinking about fucking
??? what ??? kind of kid paranoia ??? you ??? fucking antagonize" " scared??? of people
that's why you want me to sit down with you You. want people ??? ") ???11
18:(" he??? got a depth charge" " "???"I'm not a stoner" " "???"I'm not a stoner" "No ???
way man"), 12
50:("how many pidgeons can you fuck up the ass and scare while the country's sharked down
a fucking wind tunnel" "turn it on" "bunch of they'll ??? let anyone got out on the fucking
street " ???" song??? the ??? recording industry ") ???14
09:("Kasti Zana "?"Kasti Zununda "!"Kasti Zana "?"Ananda" "Kathy Sanda "?"Can't pronounce"
"Kathy Sananda" "What does that mean "?"that's like- that's like all- that's really
what all the Hindus tried to bomb sort ??? of You. guys What ???. they call existence
consciousness, bliss, That's. right You're. find- You're a sentient- You have existence
That's. like if ??? you have no control over it you find yourself like anybody being
on the planet" "I'm. born alive "." a??? condition of being on the planet is consciousness
A. condition of being that ??? it also but ??? the natural following the, natural
outcome of being ??? and having consciousness is ??? bliss That's. the natural "
???."Yeah but until mind ??? have wisdom not ??? being worth it There. are a lot of different
things-" "But- But I mean there are so many different things that go on there, are
so many confrontations about division that it- it's sure to do a lot of goodness that's ???
what it's all about Like. there is universal math" " but??? we don't follow up" "but
obvious- but obviously the imagery of a skyscraper Most ??? people hate that I ??? gotta
sit down and think about it ask later" "Ask later" "water bottled ??? rum" "punch
"?"hey man can I pull your stool "?"Can I push in your stool "?"Push in your stool")
The lyrics to Skinny Puppy's Spahn Dirge are highly abstract and don't have a clear narrative thread. Instead, they read like a collage of disjointed images, phrases and associations that create an unsettling mood of alienation, confusion and paranoia. The song seems to be heavily influenced by surrealism and collage art, with its cut-up technique and juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated elements that create a dream-like quality.
The lyrics evoke a sense of dislocation and fragmentation, with recurring themes of hate, dreams, intelligence, fame and fortune, Chicago, and the image of a "levee breaking." The song seems to be a critique of consumerism, fame, and the impact of media on our perceptions of reality. The repeated line "where is my murderer/mother gun" suggests a sense of violence and trauma, perhaps as a metaphor for the ways in which the media dehumanizes us and turns us into passive consumers.
Overall, Skinny Puppy's Spahn Dirge is a highly experimental, avant-garde piece of music that challenges conventional interpretations of song lyrics. It operates on a level of pure sensation and emotion, rather than logic or narrative, creating an atmosphere of unease, disorientation, and uncanny familiarity.
Contributed by Eliana C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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