Review Summary: Did you get lost on the trip?
Did you get trapped in memory?
Recorded at a time with vocalist Nivek Ogre was unable to distinguish reality from delusion, Last Rights is a beautiful album about the inner destruction of one's mind. The members' collective drug addictions stained the relationships within the band and stimulated the imminent breakup. Skinny Puppy managed to record music that reflected their self destruction. The resulting album is haunting, unnerving, and challenging, yet remarkably cleansing. The era of Last Rights and its accompanying tour stands as the peak of Skinny Puppy's artistic expression.
Some might say that a human without a soul is a robot. Industrial could be described, then, as the musical equivalent of a robot: a soulless genre of music. The genre focuses primarily on programmed beats, surrounded by detached electronics and the noises of machines being torn apart. Skinny Puppy's previous album, Too Dark Park, perfected this sound. The music was dark and disturbing, while keeping an element of dance in it. Last Rights borrows many of the elements that made Too Dark Park successful: the dreary atmosphere, the erratic sampling, and the haunting imagery. But it amplifies them to a point almost unsuitable for human ears. The danceable rhythms are now hidden beneath layers of the dense synths, sampling, and vocals, giving Last Rights a more claustrophobic and ominous feeling.
This description may seem simple enough, but the resulting atmosphere created by this record is captivating. The music found on the album can be equated to a mass of organs that have been fused with gears and wires, forming a human-like entity. Not quite a robot, not quite human, but some combination of the two. This man/machine hybrid may seem like a soulless abomination. But it still desires, still has emotional capacity. The being reaches out for love, begging for some sort of requisition of love in return for its own. In this same sense, Last Rights is, initially, a frightening album. However, upon further listening, one becomes lost within it, searching for a soul in the mass of organs and scrap machine parts.
The three members of Skinny Puppy deliver their best performances on this album. Ogre's stream-of-consciousness lyrics are extremely discomforting, but they are presented in a tragic and theatrical way. The lyrics are unique in that they only make sense in context of the songs. When read separate from the music, they are nearly incomprehensible, and sometime unidentifiable. Supposedly, the lyrics were very personal to Ogre, and it way his decision not to include a written version of the lyrics along with album, so many lyrics are still unknown. Yet, as the music plays, the lyrics present a story of man being torn apart by lost lovers, drugs, and reccurring nightmares. All sense of reality is lost, and there is really no end to the story; just a constant descent into madness. Complementing the madness of the lyrics is their presentation. On previous albums, Ogre's vocal would occasionally become quite monotonous. However, on Last Rights, his delivery is emotional and varied, making the delusional trip seem much more genuine.
cEvin Key and Dwayne Goettel create the perfect setting for a slow mental breakdown. While Skinny Puppy is known for their simple, abrasive drum beats, the rhythms on Last Rights are noticeable more convoluted. The sporadic rhythms throw the listener around series of twisted environments. Sometimes, the drums provide club-like rhythms; other times, the sound of crashing down the side of mountain. The rhythms are unstable in that they never allow the listener to find a comfortable position. Key's always impressive synth work is used to create an indescribable mood on Last Rights. The synths are engulfed by the rest of the mix, rather than presenting the listener a recognizable melody as in their earlier albums. The synths produce a certain beauty that battles the madness of the rest of the album. Since the inclusion of Dwayne Goettel into the band, Skinny Puppy's sampling has been top notch. On Last Rights, the sampling is done to perfection. The samples come from everywhere: horror movies, radio noises, pornography, famous speeches, and even from Revolution 9 (that really bizarre Beatles song). The samples come in the form of an onslaught, never allowing the listener to fully comprehend their true purpose, like a mind trying to process all the noises it was bombarded with throughout the day.
Last Right can be split into two distinct sections. The first half consists of tracks that could almost be found on Too Dark Park and are considered by many fans to be Puppy's best work. The second half is more experimental and is generally regarded as a more difficult listen. There is, however, not a wasted moment on this album, and both halves are equally impressive. Songs like Love in Vein and Inquisition provide the listener a familiar, but deformed, classic Puppy sound. Where as tracks like Lust Chance and Download cut all ties with conventional music. It is the later songs, though twisted abominations of noise, that give a feeling of purification after repeated listens.
Last Rights was supported on Skinny Puppy's last tour before their reunion in 2004. The live shows for the tour had Ogre acting out a narrative through the album's music. The half concert, half play chronicled a man's addiction in what seemed liked a post-apocalyptic setting. The stage set consisted of large props like the Tree of No Cares (a tree formed out dismembered limbs, porno magazines, and screaming heads) and a hanging helmet that simulates a virtual reality machine. As the concert progressed, Ogre would visit the virtual reality machine more frequently, mirroring an addiction. Soon, the virtual reality would become a form of torture, and Ogre's costumes would become more deformed. The main set ended with Ogre coming onstage in a suit called the Guiltman. The Guiltman was covered in what looked like rotting flesh twisted into perverted imagery. Syringes were stabbed into the arms of the suit, and phrases like 'forgive me' were carved into its flesh.
Sadly, Last Right did not end Skinny Puppy's internal torment. After changing labels and a series of recording incidents, the band broke up. Two months after the breakup, Dwayne Goettel was found dead from a heroin overdose. Ogre and Key reunited to finish Puppy's eighth studio album, The Process, in his memory.
Skinny Puppy's Last Right is a difficult album. At first I found it frightening, as it was one of my first notable music discoveries. Now the album has a calming effect on me. I listen to it when I have trouble sleeping or when I'm nervous about something. Last Rights is the definition of a grower: it takes repeated listens to penetrate the dense layer of industrial horror movie noise to find the human residing within. I recommend this album to anyone who enjoys the more experimental side of industrial music, and any one who is willing to challenge their conception of beautiful music.
