By Lauren Leuschner
It’s pretty crazy to think that Skinny Puppy has being making music for a quarter century. Forming in the summer of 1983, the Canadian duo is widely considered to be one of industrial music’s pioneering acts.
I first heard the name Skinny Puppy back in 2005, one year after they released their ninth studio album The Greater Wrong of the Right. I was intrigued after seeing the video for “Pro-test”, (SP’s first music video since 1996). Throughout these last 25 years, you’re not likely to find a Skinny Puppy fan that will let you forget about when Trent Reznor (NIN) blatantly ripped off their first single ‘Dig It’ for NIN’s debut single ‘Down in It’
When I first obtained h]HanDover, I was a little skeptical about what I was in for. From word of mouth and reviews I had read about it, a lot of people were saying that HanDover was less intense waters than they are usually affiliated with. Not that this at all affects their menacing, eerie sound. To my surprise, I found a lot of the tracks to be almost hypnotic. At first I didn’t like the album, but the more I listen, I find myself being sucked into the sounds of electronic distortion and sinister catchiness. As I listened more closely, I start to find this album to almost be genius-like. Ogre is an incredible lyricist.
This album is a journey into the grim, cryptic minds of Ogre and cEvin Key. A few memorable tracks on this album are “Ovirt”, “Icktums”, and my personal favourite “Vyrisus”. With that being said, grab your headphones, turn down the lights and let the music take over. This is an album not to be missed.
(SPV)
