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Skinny Puppy
The Greater Wrong of the Right Live

SPV Records

Posted: Friday, March 31, 2006
By: Ilker Yucel
Editor

At long last, the industrial music pioneers Skinny Puppy have released a comprehensive DVD that documents both the band’s present and their past. In the past, Skinny Puppy DVDs have been marred either by a lack of content (the Videos DVD) or by seemingly perpetual printing errors (Ain’t it Dead Yet?). The Greater Wrong of the Right Live not only shows the band during the second leg of their comeback tour of 2004, and a documentary about the war in Iraq by videographer and Skinny Puppy live guitarist William Morrison, but also includes what many to be consider the holy grail of Skinny Puppy videos: archival footage from three of the band’s previous tours. This 2-DVD set is not just another live video release; it is an industrial music event!

The concert footage from two dates in Canada shows Skinny Puppy in absolutely fine form. The iconic front man Nivek Ogre belts out his distinctive brand of vocal torture with as much showmanship (and as much fake blood) as ever before, at first donning a twisted Anubis mask, moving around with bodily movements as elastic as rubber, and drenching himself in sweat, blood, and mud as he delivers four tracks from The Greater Wrong of the Right, as well as an assortment of Puppy favorites. Indeed, in light of Puppy’s demented social consciousness, as well as the current political climate, songs such as “VX Gas Attack,” “Deep Down Trauma Hounds,” and “Hexonexxon” (a curious re-titling of “Hexonxonx”) still resound with as much relevance and honesty as they did in the ‘80s, proving that history can repeat itself. One of the show’s finest moments is the classic “Worlock” (again, curiously spelled “Warlock”), a song that conjures up the spirit of the dearly departed Dwayne Goettel. The rest of the band are given their just attention, with keyboardist cEvin Key swinging his dreadlocks behind a rack of keyboards and some odd bits of percussion, Justin Bennett shining on the drums, and bassist/guitarist William Morrison showing no signs of restraining his sheer enjoyment.

The real treat of the DVD is the special features. The all-too-brief montages of archival footage are impressive to say the least. Set to “Spasmolytic,” the footage from Too Dark Park shows the band building up to the nightmarish performance that was the Last Rights tour, with “Love in Vein” playing amidst images of The Tree of No Cares, Torture Heads, the Videodrome, and a final epitaphic image of Dwayne as the lyric “Exploding human heart attack” fades out. The footage show by the band during the Eurotrauma tour of ’88 (which was edited together by Ogre) is interesting with its glimpses into the band’s live performances during this period and showing Dwayne, cEvin, and Ogre as not just another band, but as a group of friends enjoying the pleasures of touring. There’s even a quick view of Edward Ka-Spel, with a cut-to-black ending the segment as Dwayne says to the camera, “It’s over.” The Information Warfare documentary by William Morrison may seem out of place to the uninformed viewer, but given the political nature of much of the band’s music (including The Greater Wrong of the Right), nothing could be more appropriate. Focusing on interviews with the former U.S. Attorney General during The Gulf War, as well as several veterans, the documentary is an inquisitive and informative look into the background of the Iraq conflict, summoning viewers to educate themselves and force a positive change in the state of their government and their world.

The Greater Wrong of the Right Live is perhaps the best DVD compilation any band could ever hope to assemble. It shows the best of the past, the present, and gives only the slightest indication towards a future that is only as bright or as bleak as we make it. As innovators in the field of industrial music, Skinny Puppy show us that age hasn’t slowed them down one iota, giving today’s electronic and alternative stars a real run for their money. Watching the live footage of the band, both old and new, proves just how much later bands like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson have been influenced by Skinny Puppy. William Morrison’s direction on this DVD is nothing short of spectacular, though it would’ve been nice if he had included his video for Download’s “Glassblower,” but that’s perhaps best left for another DVD. For those fans who were put off by The Greater Wrong of the Right, this DVD will uplift their spirits and reassure them that Skinny Puppy have most certainly not gone soft.