Skinny Puppy: Classic or Dud?

Once more, ilX makes me spend all my money.

As for the new album.... it's kicking my ass. Hmm, maybe I should have mentioned there was a new album to go with the tour earlier, eh? :)

I wouldn't say it's like The Process (which has grown on me) all that much. Yeah, some of the elements are there, but it's more of a progression from that and other avenues they have explored before and since. I don't absolutely love everything on the album, but I could safely say there isn't anything I outright hate, which puts it ahead of Rabies (Fascist Jock Itch anyone?) and The Process (Cult... ugh) as far as I'm concerned. And there are at least five tracks that I really, really like (I'mmortal, Ghostman, Use Less, Goneja and DaddyuWarbash.) More are really growing on me each time I listen to it.

One might be tempted to say it's more accessible, and in many ways it is. Those that might have been turned off by Ogre's vocals before (never an issue for me... far from it) might find this one much easier to listen to. Some of the songs are downright catchy. Their sense of humor is also much more evident this time. Yeah, they're in a better mood than they were with... well, everything else, but I'm certainly not going to fault them that. People expecting to hear a rehash of older stuff will be disappointed, I'm sure. As for me, I've had it on repeat since yesterday. I'm really looking to seeing some of this stuff done live.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005NT2V/qid=1085579085/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9644138-0400640?v=glance&s=music

I'm completely psyched for this new album, shocker. Also, "Fascist Jock Itch" was probably the one time that the Ministry pastiche craze of the time actually worked.

Dyson, yeah, you'll probably be disappointed if you're expecting Vivisect Vi... or any other SP album for that matter. And when I say "accessible," I mean accessible for Skinny Puppy, not in general. I don't think we'll see their videos in heavy rotation on MTV any time soon. Screaming is there, but it's at a minimum. Same goes for samples.

Wasn't that one around since the late eighties?

I don't mind the extra tracks on the CDs so much, but why the hell did they put the 12" version of Dig It in place of the album version on M:TPI? And if I want the album version, I have to buy the 12" comp?! WTF?

what's even more annoying is that different versions of the cds have come out over the years (bites and remission being guilty on this count i believe).

OTM OTM OTM OTM OTM OTM OTM

Although if you made me choose between the cassette versions of "Assimilate" and "The Choke" and the CD versions (which IIRC are the remixes) I would be PISSED.

Haven't heard the new one. Dare I?

why did cevin have to patch things up with ogre- why couldn't he just have stayed in the studio and made another download album. or even just a sandwich or something.
that would've been much better.

I've heard about cEvin's skills with a sandwich (peanut butter I believe) before, so I don't think that was a total slam of the new album. :) And he even gets to sing on this one. The pitched-up vocals in Daddyu Warbash starting at :50 are his.

But hey, if you hate the album, at least the CD artwork is pretty darn nifty. Not that it should be a reason to buy it or anything, of course.

There is also a strong possibility, now that they have their own label (Hell-O dEathday, which might sound familiar to some,) that they will be re-releasing the back catalogue in a far more acceptable form.

isn't "hell-o deathday" the text that used to be etched on the runout grooves on some of the older puppy vinyls? my memory is a bit fuzzy at this point.

i think the "warped pop" comments on this thread are spot on, but what really gets me about the new one is the bass, drums, and overall cohesion. the vocals are also great.

I do seem to recall it appearing etched on vinyl too, but I never trusted my memory very much either. It doesn't appear on my copies.

I'm so glad when others can see the "warped pop."

Awesome. I was the victim of the cancelled London shows around 1990 (Godflesh were supposed to support at one of them, I think) and have been waiting 15 years for this. My memory must be worse than I thought, because the only songs I could pick out that I knew were "VX Gas Attack" and "Harsh Stone White" (which winz, as it's my favourite Puppy track EVAH!) - unless they did an entire show based around the new album? And I did have to leave during the first encore...

Ogre started off in a costume that looked a bit like Oderus Urunguous' old one crossed with Sauron's armour, but shed it after a couple of songs to start with the goop. Cool bit where he shot blood at soldiers on the backdrop like he was playing some sort of giant video game.

But aces - despite me being practically the oldest person there, and the only one who hadn't bought their entire outfit from Camden Market.

While SP's "industrial" soundscaping, interest in extremes of human behavior, and horrorshow aesthetic may have been shopworn from go, their production was truly groundbreaking. Whatever you thought of Bites, the sheer sound of that record was remarkable in 1985 (especially on The Choke).

That's why, while it's clearly formative, Bites is the only Skinny Puppy record I harbor a lingering affection for. I'll listen to certain tracks from Mind: TPI and Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate occasionally, but after that, it's a wash...

Last Rights and Too Dark Park are the cream of the crop IMO.

Has anyone watched the DVD of the 'greater wrong of the right' tour? I was expecting the worst, but it was actually pretty wicked. Wish I had a chance to see 'em live.

this song is beautiful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFIlhgH4weE

did they have any other songs like this?

what's the backwards music at the end of "sleeping beast"?

awesome?

it's a backwards sample of a song. sounds like could be 70s rock or something. anyone know?

wow, playing Bites for the first time in years and it holds up astonishingly well

"Dead Lines" is a beast of a song

still bleating about these guys being way ahead of their time to people who don't care. unfairly ghettoized with the Industrial moniker. Too Dark Park and especially Last Rights feature some genuinely fucking wild, impressive production work.

you know what doesn't get mentioned enough, is Download

i knew a hella lot of industro-heads into Download in the mid-90s, haven't heard that name dropped in some years!

Crazy things, soft spoken..override.

Meanwhile, the new album's quite good! They seem to have found just the right balance for themselves and their age to keep making it work in a subtler but still textured and engaging way.

i honestly have not given any of their newer music a chance. i'm horrible i know.
want to recommend a specific track or two?