Customer Reviews

Skinny Puppy: Ain't it Dead Yet

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

UPDATED: Nettwerk plans to recall AIDY DVD to fix the problems I have listed below. Please hold back on purchasing this dvd until the recall is finished!
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first off, i did not rate this dvd a 3 because of content, but rather the way the dvd is mastered. Content wise, this dvd is great. It's a concert from July 1, 1987 - Toronto, Ont. It's a perfect presentation of what the "Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate" tour was like.
Now to the bad part. Whoever mastered this dvd (i think it was Nettmedia), did a poor job!! My first complaint is that the intro and ending credits were edited out of this dvd!! On the dvd, the show starts half way through ANGER. There is no intro, no build up, etc... The intro to this concert (which can be seen on the VHS copy) is simply amazing and is one of the best intros i've ever seen!! But if you don't have the vhs copy and this dvd will be your first viewing of this show, you're gonna be missing out. My other main problem with this disc is that during some track switching, there will be a slight glitch or a second or two is missing from the show. This is due to poor editing and SHAME on Nettwerk for not even going over this problem!!! They got some lazy workers over there!!
It saddens me that Nettwerk did such a poor job on this dvd. Anyone with a DVD-R and capturing device could have done a better job! (Something i might do when dvd-r drives become cheap).
Quality of the dvd is the same as a newly viewed vhs copy. Which isn't too bad. but it could have been worse as obvisiously nettwerk could care less about Skinny Puppy.
Oh yeah, Nettwerk still has a misprint on the cover and menu of the dvd. It still lists "One Time One Place" as "God's Gift".

on the first version they cut off the first 10 min. now they mess up the sound big time. the sound just constantly shifts into one speaker. I have to just put the cd on and mute the dvd

I used to own this on VHS, and loved it. When I saw it was available on DVD I snagged it.

The sound drops out two or three times, on several tracks, which is infuriating enough. But my copy goes back to the main menu after each song!!! There are also several little glitches in the video.

I just got this today, and have only spent ten frustrating minutes with this disc. They were bad enough to prompt me to write this review.

Now, the show itself is classic puppy, and the songs are great. Ogre's performance is just plain scary. This would be the perfect video to play at your next church function or children's birthday party.

But just take into consideration. Nettwerk is ripping you off, and the band off with this inferior and quite defective disc.

This is a great title, but it's marred once again by "catalog title" treatment. You know the type: Mastering booth puts in an original tape master into the machine, goes to get some coffee, and returns when it's done. It's the same lackluster treatment that classic material gets all the time when someone doesn't see the value in what they're mastering outside of fleecing the faithful. Left channel dropouts, video errors... this title has 'em. Outside of some glaring issues, this title smokes and has never looked better. The video quality is great when it's not glitching. Buyer beware: this is a flawed title, but from the prior release it appears this is as good as it's going to get.

well, i've been waiting quite some time for this to get a DVD release, and this is certainly not the quality product i was hoping for.

first, The Pros: the performance is excellent, i have always enjoyed both the film and the CD of this performance. Skinny Puppy was definitely at the top of their game when this was recorded.

The Cons: i could make a joke about this whole DVD being a con, but let me give specifics. the most glaring defect is that the begining of the film was completely chopped out. it starts about 2 minutes into the performance, no opening titles, no intro, just right into Anger, and not even at the begining of the song. secondly, between tracks there are jumps, it looks like whomever encoded this just pulled the tracks right from the old VHS, assigned them a length, and gave the option to play all (btw, this is a "feature" in the main, err uh, make that only menu. there are no sub menus, just a list of the songs, but i will get to that in a minute). so the result is that one track jumps to the next, and that looks very bad. thirdly, there are instances of line noise throughout, like it was literally copied from the VHS. come on, couldn't you have put just a bit of effort into this Nettwork? and of course without opening credits one wouldn't be that suprised if the closing credits had been removed, right? well, they were, it just cuts off at the end of Smothered Hope and goes back to the main menu. and even though i think it's nice the menu offers the ability to skip right to a song (something you can't do on the CD, it is all on one track), it seams that that is the main reason for all of these problems. in light of all of these defects i would have prefered it to just begin and play through, opening credits and all. this is a very frustrating release and i am seriously thinking of returning it and waiting for them to get it right.

so in conclusion, try again Nettwork, and please please please get it right next time. all the Skinny Puppy fans out there will really appreciate a little love and care put into a decent DVD release of Ain't It Dead Yet.

This video is for anyone who wants to get a glimpse into the intense industrial spectacle that was SP in the 1980's. I was lucky enough to see them live several times and despite this what I see here still amazes me. If you look at the quality of live videos put out by so-called mainstream "megastars" and compare it to Ain't It Dead Yet it is hard to imagine how Skinny Puppy with such a small budget could create such a masterfully produced video. The sound and video quality is excellent throughout and the multiple camera angels elevates this far above what you get with most concert videos released even today. Every track is classic Skinny Puppy and the live versions more than hold their own when compared to the studio versions. Recorded in Toronto in 1987 this video captures the genius that changed the face of industrial music, the influence of which continues to this day. From early tracks such as The Choke, Assimilate and Smothered Hope to the rarely performed God's Gift Maggot and Anger this show is truly amazing. This feeling is made all the more striking when you add the intense experience of seeing Ogre, cEVIN and Goettel whose intense performance illustrates why they have been considered one of the best live industrial bands ever. Although this was recorded almost 20 years ago, the distorted vocals, pounding beats, eerie samples and darkly ambient keyboards stillsound as fresh as anything being produced today, which only makes all the more obvious the enormous influence the SP has had on bands as diverse as NIN, Marilyn Manson, VNV Nation, Velvet Acid Christ and Wumpscut.
Brap On!

This is a great video for anyone who loves performance horror! Ain't it dead yet portrays Skinny Puppy in the earlier years before the ultimate masterpiece concert: Last Rites. I wish there was a professionally shot video from that tour. I did manage to pick up the Last Rites video, but not professionally shot. Missing quality. Ain't it dead yet has the quality in tact. Worth it if you can find it.

smothered hope. enough said

First of all, the only reason this did not get 5 stars is NOT because of the band (Skinny Puppy, the godfathers of EBM INDUSTRIAL) but is because of the utter LACK by the label NETTWERK that did NOTHING but put the VHS version on DVD without ANY MENUS, GRAPHICS, NOTHING EXTRA!
if you have the VHS tape, there is NO NEED to buy the DVD!
if you don't have the VHS, this is a good buy, which is why I give it 3 stars. Peak era Skinny Puppy in one of the best live shows I have ever seen (except Alien Sex Fiend was pretty darn godly!) and is an instant classic of performance art & harsh electronics!

A great professional concert video with some great props and even gunfire! Ogre never looked so clean.