VIVIsectVI

Production notes

Skinny Puppy's primary goal with VIVIsectVI was to provide a vicious depiction of vivisection and shine a spotlight on other issues regarding animal rights. The group's singer and songwriter Nivek Ogre explained his stance on animal testing to Vinyl Propaganda in 1988, stating the following:

On the album's name, Ogre went on to say:

Samples

VIVIsectVI, as is ordinary for the band's earlier work, contains a number of samples taken from horror films. The song "Who's Laughing Now?" contains samples from Sam Raimi's 1987 horror comedy Evil Dead II; the song itself is named after a line spoken by the films hero, Ash. The song "Testure" contains samples from the 1982 animated feature film adaptation of The Plague Dogs, a story about two dogs and their escape from a research laboratory in Great Britain. The song "Fritter (Stella's Home)" primarily contains samples from Roman Polanski's 1976 psychological thriller The Tenant (the song's name makes reference to a character in the film, Stella, played by French actress Isabelle Adjani). The song also uses the line "It's OK, he saw it on the television" from Stanly Kubrick's horror classic The Shining, plus the lines "I'm so happy" and "you're mine now forever" from the 1980 slasher film Maniac. The song "The Second Opinion" contains the line "that machine has got to be destroyed" from Stuart Gordon's 1986 adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's From Beyond (the song also features the "Man of the shroud" sample first used in "Epilogue" from Cleanse Fold and Manipulate). The album also features various non-horror samples, such as Ronald Reagan speaking about AIDS in the song "State Aid" and Jim Morrison saying "everywhere" in the song "Yes He Ran".

Release

VIVIsectVI was released in September 1988 worldwide. The first several hundred copies released in Canada were in full color gatefold covers; later Canadian pressings as well as all pressings released in the United States were distributed in jewelcases. The sleeve of the Australian pressing states "Manufactured And Distributed by the EMI music group Australasia"; on the back of the case, however, it says that it was "printed in U.S.A.", implying that the sleeves were in fact made in the US. This was the first Skinny Puppy release to contain a picture of the band and is also the only release which lists Dave Ogilvie as a full member of the band. The album was reissued in 2004 and contained several extra tracks that had previously been featured alongside the albums singles. A somewhat altered version of "Punks in Park's Zoo" is featured on the reissue, ending with a "cartoonlike" effect that is not featured on the version found on the "Censor" single. The album's liner notes recommend that the listener "Play this music loud or not at all" and conclude with "As always to the green guy — To hell with any bullshit".

The album was supported by two singles, "Censor" and "Testure". "Censor" is named "Dogshit" on the album, but the band decided that the single would not sell well if they had kept the original name. "Testure" was accompanied by a music video which depicts a man (who presumably had been abusing his pet dog) being experimented on by a group of humanoid surgeons. According to Ogre and cEvin Key (Drums/Keyboards), the video was banned from airplay following a poll by Citytv (an associate of Canada's MuchMusic). According to the duo, the poll came out nearly split, but the video was ultimately banned by "the powers that be". Ogre speculated that the video's banning had more to do with "past merit", rather than the subject matter at hand.

Track listing

All tracks written by Ogre/Key/Goettel/Ogilvie.

Personnel