In Praise of....VIVIsectVI by Skinny Puppy

No real reason for this one. It's not even my favorite album of theirs, but I dug it out today -- again for no real reason -- and am blown away by the pure, seemingly chaotic engulfment of sinister sonic elegance. I remember first hearing this album's predecessor, Cleanse, Fold & Manipulate in college and being completely captivated by their layered sound and disregard for hooks and/or conventional song structure (which is not to say that those elements are absent from Skinny Puppy's work, but that they're clearly not the band's priorities). Danceable yet distractingly all over the place....with a paplable whiff of dread, evil and abject suffering, Cleanse.. became one of my favorites. When the band came to Columbus later that winter (I went to college in Ohio), I leapt at the chance. Suffice to say, their perfromance was unlike anything I'd ever witnessed. Screens galore showing all sorts of attrocities from war crimes and snuff films to luridly graphic footage of animal vivisection. Ogre came out (the other two hidden behind banks and banks of synthesizers) with a stuffed dog draped over his shoulders....which he would later cut open, slaterhing himself with it's innards. The Outfield this was not.

A prolific band at the time, VIVIsectVI came hot on on the bloodied heels of the comparitively poppy Cleanse, Fold & Manipulate, Opening with the almost Joycean, stream-of-consciousness screed that was "Dogshit" and into the toxic fatwa boogie of "VX Gas Attack," I can't say I was able to listen to much else for the next several weeks. VIVIsectVI was both a captivating puzzle and a glorious mess of nitemarish beatitude. My roommate damn near stopped talking to me for a while, fuming at the constant airings of "Testure" (easily the most accessible, dare I suggest 'hit single'-friendly track on the album).

"This sounds like music Satan would breakdance to" was his only comment on the music, and it's a description I've cherished ever since.

They went onto make about a dozen more albums it seems (I remember quite loving Rabies and the opening track on The Process), but sort've fell out with them after that (being largely put off by Ogre's self-indulgent performances with Pigface), but I still love VIVIsectVI.

Rip it apart, carnivores.