VIVIsectVI (pronounced "vivisect six") is the fourth studio album by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy. It was released on September 12, 1988, through Nettwerk. Despite tackling controversial topics like animal rights, chemical warfare, and environmental waste, VIVIsectVI was well-received. It spawned two singles, "Censor", which was released on the album as "Dogshit", and "Testure", which was Skinny Puppy's only song to chart on Billboard's Dance Club Songs. VIVIsectVI was followed by a theatrically involved tour with Nine Inch Nails as the opening act.
The album saw a refinement of Skinny Puppy's characteristically harsh, mechanical, and sample-heavy sound, with several critics labeling it as the band's best effort. Since its release, VIVIsectVI has garnered critical acclaim and recognition as a landmark release in industrial and electronic music.
Background
After Skinny Puppy's first two releases on a label, Remission (1984) and Bites (1985), the band began to hone its messages and focus on social wrongs.<!--this is said at 32:18--> This evolution was furthered on 1987's Cleanse Fold and Manipulate when Skinny Puppy started to experiment with ambience and atmosphere. Dave Ogilvie, who had produced some of the group's previous albums, joined as a full-time member, The lyrical and thematic elements of the music were refined and made more of a focus on the album; whereas before the music's message was oblique, on VIVIsectVI it became more direct. It is pronounced "vivisect six".<!--this is said at 13:50-->
Composition and content
VIVIsectVI was followed by a tour of North America that featured Nine Inch Nails, a band inspired by Skinny Puppy, as the opening act. Despite being a full member of the band, Ogilvie was not a part of the live performances. Instead, Skinny Puppy toured as a trio, with Ogre on vocals, Goettel on percussion, and Key performing synthesizers. The concerts were noted for being shocking and violent, with horrifying visuals playing in the background and Ogre acting as a madman on stage.<!--at 29:35-->), was stolen by a female fan who went backstage after the concert. members of the crowd believed that the stuffed dog that Ogre was vivisecting was real and called the police. Even after it became evident that no animal was harmed during the concert, the band, charged with disorderly conduct, was arrested and jailed. After a night spent incarcerated, the band was released and fined $200. According to Ogre, it was ironic to be detained for mimicking vivisection when, across the street from the concert hall (Bogart's), was a genuine animal testing laboratory. He later gave an official statement on the encounter: "I find it paradoxical that the police can justify arresting us on the assumption that we mutilate and experiment on live animals for a theatrical performance when the inhuman reality is that it occurs in over 300 laboratories every day." This was the first Skinny Puppy release to contain a picture of the band and was the only to list Ogilvie as an official member. "Testure", released as a single in 1989, was accompanied by a music video that depicted a man (who presumably had been abusing his pet dog) being experimented on by a group of surgeons. According to Ogre and Key, the video was pulled from airplay following an internal poll by Citytv, an associate of Canada's MuchMusic. Irrespective of the video's ban, "Testure" reached number 19 on Billboards's Dance Club Songs chart.
Critical reception
Upon release in 1988, VIVIsectVI was well-received but generally overshadowed by Skinny Puppy's onstage antics. In 1989, Jim Aikin of Keyboard wrote, "Somehow, in the midst of the painful audio chaos, the fun comes across."
Accolades
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:0em 1em 1em 0pt"
!Year
!Publication
!Country
!class=unsortable|Accolade
!class=unsortable|Rank
!class=unsortable|
|-
|align=center|1988
|Melody Maker
|United Kingdom
| "Albums of the Year"
|align=center|13
|align=center|
|-
|align=center|2012
|Treble
|rowspan="2"|United States
| "10 Essential Industrial Albums"
|align=center|5
|align=center|
|-
|align=center|2017
|LA Weekly
| "10 Classic Industrial Albums"
|align=center|9
|align=center|
|}