There’s little point in retreading old ground here: Skinny Puppy are colossi in their field, progenitors of industrial techno and kicking ass far harder than the likes of Trent Reznor and Al Jourgensen were at the start of their careers. Seminal doesn’t even come close, and the fact that during the 80s and 90s, industrial metal giants Ministry sometimes included a cover of ‘Smothered Hope’ from Skinny Puppy’s 1984 ‘Relapse’ EP speaks volumes.
Similarly, that they’ve not only continued but gone from strength to strength since the untimely drug-related death of longstanding member Dwayne Goettel similarly signifies the band’s focus and committment.
‘Weapon’, their 14th album to date is by no means indicative of a band mellowing or in retreat, and they’ve hardly softened their politics, either. Allegedly, the band’s music was used as a method of torture at Guantanamo Bay. Unrusprisingly, this didn’t sit well with their pro-animal rights, left of centre politics (and rightly so), and ‘Weapon’ is their retalliatory shot. And what a shot it is.
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The instrumentation in itself isn’t all that abrasive for the most part: instead, the album derives its intensity from the crisp, clinical monotony of the jittery synth lines, propelled by relentless industrial beats. The snarled vocals, processed and robotic, in conjunction with the stripped-back arrangements distil angry sentiments into hard-edged electro grooves. The result is an album that’s got absolutely no shortage of firepower.
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