Too Dark Park
While never particularly accessible to begin with, Skinny Puppy reacted to the mainstreaming of industrial (Ministry, KMFDM) with their most challenging disc. Reissued with new packaging, 1990'sToo Dark Parkdoes not follow the path set by its predecessor,Rabies, which dabbled in rock structure and pomp. There are most definitely guitars here, but nothing resembling a riff or hook. Each track is already filled up with layers upon layers of audio collage, abrasive squalls, squawks, and squelches, with less emphasis on the clever film samples and tortured vocals of frontman Nivek Ogre. For the first time, his prose seems disconnected from the sound sculpture, hanging alone in its anguish. Signature beats keepToo Dark Parkin the industrial-dance genre, and although the pace does let up on occasion ("Nature's Revenge"), its overall cacophony ("Reclamation") makes it a dense listen.--Liisa Ladouceur