Rabies (Skinny Puppy album)

Rabies is the fifth studio album by Skinny Puppy, released in 1989.^[4][5] It was released on CD, cassette, and LP by Nettwerk Records in Canada, licensed for release on the same formats to Capitol Records in the United States, and released on CD only by Nettwerk in Europe. In 1993 the CD edition was reissued by Nettwerk to correct mastering errors in the original release.^[5]

The cover art was made by Steven R. Gilmore.^[5]

Recording and production

Most of the band's previous albums had been mixed and produced by the group's "fourth member" Dave "Rave" Ogilvie. For Rabies, lead singer/songwriter Nivek Ogre brought in friend and Ministry frontman, Al Jourgensen. Jourgensen and Ogre had toured together with Ministry (Ogre can be seen and heard on the In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up video and CD). The other two members of Skinny Puppy, cEvin Key (drummer/programmer) and Dwayne Goettel (keyboardist/programmer), did not approve of Jourgensen's takeover, creating friction between the band members.^[6]

Key, upon being asked what his favorite "Dwayne moment" was, selected the strings on "Worlock". He came home to find the strings recorded on a tape and constructed the rest of the song from it. Ogre has also stated the opinion Worlock "rivals Killing Game" as one of their best songs. The song has been played on every tour after its conception. A Roland Harmonizer was used to create the vocoder-effect during the chorus. Samples of the song "Helter Skelter" by the Beatles are mixed with Charles Manson singing the song within "Worlock".

Release and promotion

The original CD release on Nettwerk (and the licensed version on Capitol) was mistakenly mastered with Dolby B noise reduction, which resulted in a muffled sound. In 1993, the album was digitally remastered and re-released on Nettwerk.^[5]

Only one promotional video was produced for Rabies. The "Worlock" video was primarily a rhythmically-edited string of horror movie clips featuring outtakes and clips from the band's earlier video, "Stairs and Flowers" (from the album Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse). The video, which opens with a "Rated X" graphic, was intended to be a critique of the concept of censorship in America. Many of the movie clips featured in the video were from films directed by Dario Argento, an Italian horror director, who has a reputation for being "the most censored film director" in the world because his films are routinely heavily edited by US distributors to remove gore and violence so as to gain an "R-Rating" from the MPAA. For the "Worlock" video Skinny Puppy included footage deleted from the US versions of such Argento films as Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebrae, Phenomena, and Opera. Other films included in the music video include, The Beyond, Hellraiser II, Bad Taste, Dead and Buried, Luther The Geek, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, From Beyond, Death Warmed Up, Eraserhead and Altered States.

Due to the graphic violence of the horror film clips used in the video, and also copyright violations, "Worlock" was subsequently banned by MTV, and didn't receive any television airplay. In 1992, Skinny Puppy released a compilation of their music videos, but "Worlock" was noticeably absent. According to Nettwerk, the video was omitted partially due to copyright problems and also because of concern the video would be banned by other countries which might find the video's content obscene. However, in recent years the video has been widely bootlegged among fans on the internet. "Backing" videos for "Tin Omen" and "Choralone" were produced for the Too Dark Park tour in 1990, and have also been spread on the Internet.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Ogre/Key/Goettel. 

Times listed are for the remastered CD.

Personnel

• Nivek Ogre (vocals)
• cEvin Key (production, engineering, mixing, various instruments)
• Dwayne Goettel (production, engineering, mixing, various instruments)
• Dave Ogilvie (production, engineering, mixing, backing vocals)
• Alien Jourgensen (production, engineering, mixing, guitar, additional vocals)
• Greg Reely (additional engineering, special thanks)
• Marc Ramaer (additional engineering, mixing)
• Ken Marshall (additional engineering)
• Cyan (vocals and lyrics on "Rain")
• Keith Auerback (mixing on "Fascist Jock Itch")
• Jeff Newell (mixing on "Fascist Jock Itch")

References