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Skinny Puppy Remission (1984)

cEvin Key was unhappy with the way his former band Images In Vogue were going. That switch for better creative control was the one catalyst that helped change and pioneer industrial music forever. Key’s tape experiments date all the way back to 1981, considered the original Back & Forth days. It wasn’t until three years later when the first Skinny Puppy record became a reality, born out of the ashes of new wave and synthpop. With Key, vocalist Ohgr, and Wilhelm Schroeder as the Vancouver three, Remission helped change the course of how industrial music would be portrayed, showing a horrifying, chilling, frightening, and dark-as-night side of its then-current music climate; one where black as the genre’s primary color and Halloween becoming the genre’s new official holiday were just put in place. Originally released as a six-track e.p., later re-issues would double its’ expansion and original legacy.

“Smothered Hope” would be the official start of Puppy’s freezing existence and a token industrial / synthpop anthem later revered by many fans of the outfit and genre. Ministry would later cover this as a B-side for their “Burning Inside” single (1989). It’s “Glass Houses” that would usher in dark soundbytes and sampling for their own benefit; nerve-pinching synths reaching high on the scale and sliding basslines courtesy of the rare Mr. D. Plevin. The dynamics couldn’t be demonstrated any better on “Far Too Frail” where Key’s battering drums knock down walls and the band’s synth work light up brightly even as Ohgr’s vocals gnaw on the surface. That stinging feeling and Ohgr’s predatory actions continue with “Solvent”, seeing Skinny Puppy raise the bar on the horror aesthetic. (It would be resurrected and remixed for 2013′s Weapon.)
“Sleeping Beast” would be the only carry-over from the original Back & Forth cassette to make it on the full album. The original closer, “Brap”, sends familiar samples from horror movies later resurrected on their other documents, and later become an on-going concept for Skinny Puppy’s line of rare, curious, archival material which all Puppy fans clamor for. Key would also coin the popular Puppy lexicon for the band’s improvisation and jam sessions forward (”brap on”).

Later re-issues of Remission double its bones with the inclusion of new or previously-unreleased tracks of that era. Inclusions such as the hard-as-crystal “Film” would be one of many regular instrumental bridges. “Manwhole” once again shows the crunchy dynamic of early-Eighties drum machines and Ohgr’s play on words for song titles, firmly segue-ing into “Ice Breaker” which sounds newer than its’ home-quality Remission counterparts to be an era original. “Glass Out”, a rough bonus remix of “Glass Houses” could be a distant hat tip to Cabaret Voltaire with Ohgr’s treated vocals and Crackdown-era (1983) synth-pop aesthetic.

Almost 35 year later, Skinny Puppy and most of its’ components are still heavily respected. They’re one of the few Eighties-guard industrial acts to survive their heyday. They survived inner turmoil, the death of a beloved band member, addictions, and a years-long haitus. On the other hand, they still survive as themselves through the legacy of their legendary grotesque live shows, Key’s label (Subconscious), their various side projects, movie roles, animal rights, and smoker’s rights. It’s worth mentioning that shortly after Remission’s release, Schroeder would do the exact same thing leaving Skinny Puppy just as Key left Images In Vogue. He would later be known as Bill Leeb where Front Line Assembly would be born, and Dwayne Goettel would be introduced into the Puppy fold.