Too Dark POLL -- Skinny Puppy Albums Poll

i feel the same way about 'last rights' -- my vote

Last Rights is real close. has the best opener IMO.

25 years later I still think the correct answer is Bites

it was a hard choice. bites might have more good songs. it's funny how such a big deal (uh ... relatively speaking) is made of dude from severed heads' (forgot his name) supposed influence on them post bites; but really, the textures and timbres on bites are pretty accomplished and terrifying and don't sound underdeveloped at all.

the puppy is really beyond due for a critical reappraisal/newfound acceptance with electronic oriented music listeners these days.

Tom Ellard? I in no way undervalue or discount his contributions to ANYTHING because he's a fucking genius (and Severed Heads is the only other band in the same vein that I think is in the same league as Skinny Puppy; in fact, I like them more).

Umm... this is hard. Last Rites and Too Dark Park both have things which could take it for them, but VIVIsectVI has the one-two of VX Gas Attack and Harsh Stone White.

This is going to take some thought.

i think tom ellard made a joke somewhere that he taught them how to program their sampler properly or something. afaik he only worked with them on the "chainsaw" ep though, which is completely sick

ignoring compilations (don't really get why comps are being included in an album poll but whatever), it's between remission and bites for me. bites contains some amazing music but like most of their albums is a bit over long. still it's worth it for the last two songs alone. remission is just straight back and forth bangers from start to finish but is a bit more conservative production wise compared to their later stuff. the 12" singles comp is untouchable. need to have a revision session before i vote

i think it's the vocals and to a lesser extent posturing and stage antics that has held back any critical reappraisal or whatever. i honestly couldn't imagine your average triangle wave fan or whoever being able to sit through mind: the perpetual intercourse and enjoy it song for song. and afaik they never had a stray crossover with balearic or cosmic djs which rules them out for the beardo re edit set. but yeah some of the drum programming on bites is just incredible. and didn't they have that song which sampled a skipping cd like 5 years before oval came along?

stray crossover HIT that should say

VIVIsectVI. Totally messed up my 9th-grade mind. Re-listened recently and it still packs a wallop.

hmmmmm

gut says rabies, but vivisect is tempting as well

Rabies is underappreciated

still not totally convinced by VIVIsectVI

looking at discogs it seems tom ellard worked with them as early as "assimilate" which might explain why he gets credited for influencing their sound so drastically

i like the quieter more abstract songs on the bites cd reissue best. "falling", "church", "love" etc. kinda like a much creepier severed heads circa city slab horror. wish they had more stuff like this:

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

"Church" and "Love" have always been very high on my list of Skinny Puppy songs, right up there with "The Choke", "Basement", "Dead Lines" and "Icebreaker".

Last rights b/c it raped my speakers like nothing i had ever heard to that point

Rabies isn't underappreciated at all; if you want an underappreciated SP album, look at The Greater Right of the Wrong

Also lolteenager - i wrote and got a reply from alternative press after goettel died b/c rollingstone gave him more ink then them.

major xpost -- hi dere, i was saying that despite ellard's godlike genius, skinny puppy w/o him still are massive and incredible

ah, read that the wrong way around

sorry!

Always meant to get into this band, this poll should help nudge me a bit. I liked Last Rights when I heard it in high school but that's about the extent of my knowledge, so I'm not gonna ruin the poll by voting for the only one I've heard.

Ohhhh my gosh I had no idea these guys had so many albums.

xp: Last Rights is good, though!

really, the only albums of theirs I really have issues with are VIVIsectVI and The Process

yeah it's weird that VIVIsectVI (hate that title too) gets big upped so much; bites is much more direct and forceful and last rights has the most intricate production; VIVIsectVI kinda splits the difference unsatisfactorily. although "harsh stone white" is fucking awesome. also yes the track "download" on last rights samples a skipping cd but doesn't sound anything like oval, at all

def. my favorite band that all my friends hate

Vivisect VI for VX Gas Attack and Who's Laughing Now? alone, though most of their discs include favorites of mine...though, in my book, no full SK disc is as satisfyingly crunchy as this one. VIVIVI all the way, man.

Testure was a bit weak, but in retrospect it makes for a good breather from the heady murk of the rest, eh?

VIVIsectVI without a second thought. Bites is a close second.

Bites never clicked with me; dunno why. Really liked Remission a lot (esp. the expanded/reissued one), but Bites...?

CF+M was my first Puppy album, and I liked it/was scared by it.

This is making me want to revisit the catalogue and REASSESS.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Toughie, but I'm going with VIVIsectVI.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i have thought about this very hard and i am a last rights person

Guess I was the only Mind... vote.

I thought I might have voted Mind... but must have been VIVIsectVI.

mind is somehow also the best album

yah all my favorites except too dark park mentioned in this revive

Too Dark is my fav.

"Tormentor" would play everywhere i walked if I could program the music to come out of my pores

ch ch church in hell

i revisited Cleanse Fold and Manipulate as a result of this poll revive. "First Aid", "Deep Down Trauma Hands" and "Addiction" are still up there in my SP greatest hits selection.

been too long since I played some Skuppy. think tonight will be the night I go back to some of the 80s stuff I hadn't perused as much.

think "Tormentor" will always be my favorite tune though\.

i listened to "Rabies" again a couple of times recently. i feel it is unfairly maligned, as is Al's production.

Too Dark Park for me.

Also have to plug for Hilt - offshoot band that I like more than the Puppy in many ways. Primary LPs are Call the Ambulance Before I Hurt Myself and Journey to the Center of the Bowl. Awful titles and artwork, utterly transcendent music.

playing Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse atm

now listening to the latest one, Weapon. not sure if I will get used to this vocal style, but this is the first thing post Last Rights I've heard so maybe he sounded like this on all of the 21st century albums

One of those bands I've been split over and really need to be in the mood for. I played the hell out of Last Rights but have a hard time returning to it. Too Dark Park sounds very good this morning, it has this eerie cinematographic sense of apocalyptic, radioactive calm. I like the shameless pop rearing its ugly head behind the layers too.

"Harsh Stone White" might be my third or fourth favorite track of theirs, all-time.

is that a drill on the track?

it's up there. we need a full skinny puppy tracks poll, which i reckon would be heavily split between late period and mid period SP.

to you i say, what about early puppy!!!

i listened to remission and bites today

i love early puppy but judging by ilm puppy chat it seems that period is perhaps not overly appreciated / known here.

smothered hope, assimilate, dead lines, the centre bullet and far too frail would all be contenders in my top 10.

I didn't like Bites at first (re: 15 years ago) cos I was used to more 90s SP as that's what I started with but Bites sounded very nice yesterday.

I LOVE Bytes. Rot and assimilate!!!

shit is just evil new order. perfect music

Remission sounds fantastic, haven't listened to it in like 30 years probably.

listening to Last Rights for teh first time in about 15 years, lord this sucker is dense. "Inquisition" is a demonic nightmare.

the samples are so well layered in. lot of melodic bits too.

kind of cinematic too

"Riverz End" is like an industrial/EBM "O Fortuna"

that was the first SP album I got.. otm re it’s cinematic qualities, for some reason I got aquatic scifi The Abyss-esque vibes from it.