Skinny Puppy - VIVIsectVI

Released in 1988, VIVIsectVI (pronounced “vivisect six”) stands as a pivotal album in Skinny Puppy’s discography and a landmark in the evolution of industrial music. Fierce, uncompromising, and deeply political, the Canadian electro-industrial pioneers used this fourth studio album to take aim at animal cruelty, environmental degradation, and the horrors of chemical warfare.

Blending their abrasive, sample-saturated production with a newly refined sonic clarity, VIVIsectVI sharpened Skinny Puppy’s sound into something even more impactful. Tracks like “Censor” (originally titled “Dogshit”) and “Testure”—their only song to chart on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs—delivered searing messages wrapped in nightmarish beats and distorted electronics.

Critically acclaimed and widely considered one of the band’s finest works, the album also laid the groundwork for Skinny Puppy's theatrical, multimedia-heavy live shows. Their supporting tour featured a then-unknown Nine Inch Nails as the opening act, underscoring the album’s influence on a new generation of industrial artists.

Unflinching in both its subject matter and sonic attack, VIVIsectVI remains a defining release—not just for Skinny Puppy, but for the genre as a whole.