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Bark with a bite

Skinny Puppy is back on the road, ready to shock 'n' roll
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By James Scanlon
For The Prague Post
August 8th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
What's not to like about in-your-face lyrics and a little ultraviolence onstage?
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Skinny Puppy

When: Thursday, Aug. 9 at 7:30
Where: Roxy
Tickets: 700 Kč, available through Ticketpro, Ticketstream, Ticketportal and at the venue

Beyond all redemption and with only the fires of hell to look forward to, Canada’s most prominent misery merchants, Skinny Puppy, are on the road again with Mythmaker, their 12th album, in tow.
With Nivek Ogre (vocals) and cEvin Key (synths, electronics) at the helm, the band continues to build its 25-year obsession with industrial-horror-goth-electronica, as well as a reputation for some of the most disturbing live theatrics imaginable. It’s easy to see how Skinny Puppy became an inspiration for the likes of Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.
With their new release, Ogre and Key are keen to show earthlings just how much they’ve raised the goth bar. Injecting more elements of electro hip-hop and heavy percussion into the usual liberal supply of disturbing samples, Mythmaker boasts an altogether rockier edge than most of the group’s previous efforts. With contributions from longtime Puppy collaborators Ken Marshall and Otto Von Schirach, it also comes across as being profoundly anti-establishment, something Ogre says is a reaction to “the concept of control and manipulation of culture that falsely enhances the lives of the duplicitous.”
In other words, it aims a below-the-belt punch at the likes of the Bush administration and everyone else in authority who abuses power. Replete with trademark pernicious lyrics, tracks like “magnifishit,” “ugLi” and “politikiL” have serious shock value.
Love it or loathe it, the Puppy is an acquired taste. The band’s outspoken polemics have managed to amass a massive cult following, addressing issues such as animal rights, deforestation, rape and chemical warfare with tastefully titled albums like Mind: The Perceptual Intercourse, VIVIsectVI, Rabies and Last Rights, to name but a few.
“It’s been quite a ride,” admits Ogre about the band’s turbulent career. “I can’t believe this is the third decade I’ve been working with cEvin.”
Skinny Puppy fell apart in 1994 during the recording of The Process album, due to a fondness for chemicals and in-house bickering. Key and Dwayne Goettel, another original member, grabbed the master tapes of the unfinished album and headed back to their native Vancouver, leaving Ogre to stew in Los Angeles. Following the death of Goettel from a heroin overdose a couple months later, Skinny Puppy disintegrated. Yet somehow The Process not only managed to see the light of day in 1996, but was hailed as one of the group’s best efforts. Still, the band didn’t resurface until 2000, for a one-off performance at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden.
The event later appeared on DVD, renewing interest in Skinny Puppy, which got back together properly in 2003. With Mark Walk, a new recruit on guitar, synths and electronics, the band launched a “post-millennial rebirth” and has been gigging ever since.
Often looking like the members have raided the Troma Films costume department and with fake blood galore, Skinny Puppy live is definitely not for the squeamish. From bleeding crucifixes to carrying out mock executions onstage, Ogre and Key have no qualms about overstepping the line of decency. They hit an all-time low in 1990 by showing the televised footage of Pennsylvania State Treasurer Budd Dwyer blowing his brains out.
Was this art or a sick joke? Neither, according to Ogre.
“The sick thing is that violence really is a big part of our lives and all we do is suppress it, not deal with it,” he says. “It completely motivates our behavior, yet we never seem to admit that to ourselves. I’m not a violent person, but I think it’s important to confront people and shock them into dealing with the truths they’re too afraid to deal with.”
A word of advice for their appearance at Roxy: Give the dog a bone and run.

James Scanlon can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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