Skinny Puppy – Rabies

this original and all other 1989 cd releases were mistakenly mastered with Dolby B noise reduction.this issue was corrected in '93 with a remastered cd only in Canada not until '98 was a properly mastered version available in other countries.

This album is a very polarizing one for SP fans. The issue is that it was made after "VIVIsectVI", an album that was based atop a foundation of noisy layers and complex structure. You see, "Rabies" is the opposite of that. This album tried to bring the group back to their "minimal" sound from "Remission" and "Bites", which were both excellent releases, and very worthy of a listen. Now the whole issue with this decision is that the latter of those two was made four years prior to this, and since then, they had been doing a very different thing with their music. Some of the tracks here really work with that direction (HeXonXonX, Two Time Crime [as it's apparently meant to be called], Amputate) and sound like they could have been made for Bites, but have merely been remixed for 1989, other tracks have a very obvious flaw. You see, Rodent is a good song. But, it does NOT need to exceed five minutes in length. It should have been around three. There's such a lack of song structure and form to break up monotony on some of these longer tracks that it causes frustration. And lest we forget the "Al Jourgensen" tracks. Oh heaven help us. Tin Omen has remained a live staple since this album, manly because it can be powerful live (see Back and Forth Series 4), but regrettably, it is really dull in the studio mix, and Fascist Jock Itch is absolutely one of the stupidest tracks SP has ever made. It'd be a decent punk or metal song, but it's unfitting on an SP album. Worlock is what most (including me) people buy the album to hear. It is NOTHING like the other tracks here. It isn't compromisingly "minimal", it has no guitar (save for a Beatles sample), it has a structure with a real chorus. As a result, it works. It isn't crippled in any of the ways that some of these tracks are. And it is truly amazing.

In short, I would reccommend this album if it were relatively affordable and it were the non "dolby b mix" version, but only to someone who has first had a listen online or something to that extent, because you want to know for sure if you will or won't pitch it out the window for it's ugly spots...

Maybe not the best Skinny Puppy album, but definitely a really good place to start out for someone who is not already into their sound.

The opener Rodent is a great, upbeat track, typical of Puppy, utilizing all the sounds and production methods we've come to expect from them, and followed up by Hexonxonx, probably one of the more "funky" songs we'll ever hear from the band. It's catchy, and it works. Two Time Grime keeps the par up, but doesn't stand out much following the first two tracks, and acts a bit like a filler.
However, the pace changes completely with Fascist Jock Itch. Based on a fast, hard hitting EBM beat with grinding guitars and manic drumming. It has a very raw and aggressive punk sound, which I like. While it might not have the unique integrity you've come to expect from this era of Skinny Puppy, it adds some interesting variation to the album.
Besides, the album more than saves its it own skin with Worlock, being arguably the best track SP have ever made - If not one of the best tracks in the world. Like a good book or movie, it feeds you with impressions without ever revealing more than it has to. The overprocessed vocals, samples and atmospheric sounds all come together in a perfect masterpiece that will have you in its grasp by the panic-ridden end of the song. Worlock alone is a reason to buy this album.
But that doesn't mean you should stop here. Rain works as a creepy like outtro to Worlock, before Tin Omen stirs things up a bit with its very characteristic guitars, that probably make this song the best evidence of Al Jourgensen's production. If you like early Ministry, you'll also like this.
Rivers and Choralone are two of my favourites here, finally taking the album into its more downtempo exit with a sound that could have been the soundtrack of a horror movie (both tracks come together in the masterful Riverzend three years later on Last Rights).
Amputate pulls the album even further into the depths of despair, before the live recording "Spahn Dirge" tears it all apart in a 16 minute terrible industrial opus, that truly shows why Skinny Puppy is a worthy successor of Throbbing Gristle's legacy.

Conclusion? It's impossible to buy a pre-"The Process" Skinny Puppy album and regret it later, and this is no exception...

Worlock is the pinnacle of the album, but only because of the vocoder. Spahn Dirge is also cool, but because it is live, it sounds rather plain and nasty. Rivers is okay, because it is an instrumental. If you look into Puppy's lyrics, they are a but nerdy. Those lyrics, though, are what makes them interesting, in their poetic, incorrect grammar. (They also tend to repeat themes. Sorry, Ogre.)

"Two time crime" was a miss print on the song listing for the album, it was supposed to have said "Two time grime", and was later corrected on futer releases on other labels.

The album as a whole is a little too influenced by the buzzsaw treatment Al Jourgenson brought to the table, but still a great album. The first 4 or 5 minutes of "Spahn Dirge" are an amazing document of numbing guitar/noise ambiance.