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54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sonic Masochism, January 20, 2002
"Too Dark Park" is the best-loved Skinny Puppy album amongst hardcore fans and certainly a good place to start for the uninitiated. SP's previous effort "Rabies" (1989) is slightly easier to listen to, mostly due to slick production courtesy of Al Jourgensen (please tell me you know who that is). However, unless your mind is of the warped and delinquent variety, you'll find that Skinny Puppy is ANYTHING but easy listening. Skinny Puppy is a horror show for the ears, sonic masochism, a terrible but engaging nightmare that you can't wake from. In that respect, TDP is arguably the most quintessential Puppy album. It's harsh, dense, chaotic, and angry as hell, a culmination of the sound that they had been driving towards since they banded in 1982. (Their next album, 1991's "Last Rights", is a slight departure into experimentalism while 1996's "The Process" sounds like a completely different band.)But be forewarned. I suspect that most people won't be able to recognize this as music. People who consider industrial-lite fluff like Filter and Stabbing Westward "cutting edge" or "hardcore" are in for a big, big (big) shock. In fact, they'd probably do best to pass on this band; I doubt they'd "get it". But you're probably here because you want something BIZARRE and DIFFERENT! "Too Dark Park" jerks to life with "Convulsion", probably the most dense and chaotic track on the album. Inter-cut with samples from a documentary on LSD, Nivek Ogre's vocals and lyrics make it clear upfront that he's just about lost it. "Tormentor", the next track, is my favorite. Cevin Key and Dwayne Goettel morph what could've been a relatively standard industrial-dance track into something dark and sinister. "Spasmolytic" is just flat out insane. Phrases and words are strung together in maniacal fashion, suggesting an intense and hellish drug withdrawal whilst living in urban squalor. The single version of "Spasmolytic" gets the minimalist treatment, making it spookier and decidedly better (it should've been on this album, but you can get it on "The Singles Connection"). "Rash Reflection" shares a similar electro-sound with "Tormentor", but is decidedly more claustrophobic and terrifying. I'll stop here, but suffice it to say that every track is its own private nightmare and every one is equally as good as the next. The lyrics are written in a drug-crazed William S. Burroughs style of free association. It's hard to understand what's going on, but that's all part of the experience. TDP forces you to live the nightmare of drug addiction/withdrawal and the mental chaos associated with it; the music adds emotional and visceral chaos, churning the whole vile mixture out of control. In case you're wondering, you don't have to be an addict or ex-addict to appreciate it - I've never touched a hard drug in my life. Drugs are a central theme, but there's so much more going on here. As great as this album is, it's not even my favorite Skinny Puppy album. In the beginning they had a lo-fi 80's synth sound that was just perfect, plus they used a lot of obscure horror movie samples = fun times. So while this album is great, it gets even better. Brap on.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Back on track..., March 30, 2002
Too Dark Park came on the heels of Rabies, which in his more charitable moments Cevin Key described as "a big party." When this album came out, I was relieved to hear that SP had backed down from the brink of absolute hardcore and were revisiting the beauty and the depth of the synthesizer.
TDP opens with Spasmolytic, which is highly suggestive of orgiastic violence...a staggering march beat buried underneath a maze of the usual samples of movies and television but also gunfire and explosions. TDP then settles into "Tormentor", which is a more danceable number, "Spasmolytic", which is a fast, driving beat but in a dark and highly suggestive manner of urban decay. It is followed by "Rash Reflection", whose repeating musical and lyrical theme ("kiss the master's feet") evokes dark images of corporate power, manipulation and hopeless submission. Guitars are present, but they are drenched in reverb and atmospheric rather than the core elements of the songs. The album then makes a right turn into "Natures Revenge," which comprises some of the most dark yet gentle music that SP had made since VivisectVI's "Testure", replete with somber pads and fretless bass riffs. This probably highlights some of the best of Dwayne Gottel's sensibilities in songwriting and arrangement. It continues with "Shoreline Poison", another melancholy, dark, slower song, and then loses a bit of focus and atmosphere with the remaining tracks bouncing in and out of different tempos. Nevertheless, a very strong and compelling album, perhaps the most accessible of them all. I saw this album performed live on their TDP tour and it brought home some serious facts about this group...that this is a band squarely in the horror genre. Between video screens projecting their interpretation of the songs, and Ogre's brilliant stage performance (the first half hour he struggled to escape from a gauze-wrapped, blood-packed, head to toe full body cast with only a hole for his mouth to breathe) the most jaded thugs that had come to deliver bone crushing mosh pit antics were left slack jawed, motionless and silent. I left the concert emotionally distressed and thoroughly intellectually provoked. While this tour was perhaps the most provocative and potentially offensive of their history, their ability to leave the worst of the crowd completely stunned and upset spoke volumes about this group's importance and impact.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How this came to be my favorite Skinny Puppy album!, November 3, 2005
This was the first SP album I ever heard. I was still in high school in 97 and my coworker and I had similar musical taste. I was listening to Coal Chamber's first album (I know, not quite SP, right?) in the shop radio and she said, "I should bring in some Skinny Puppy. I'll bet you love em." So she grabbed this tape and gave it to me to borrow. If any of you remember the original pressing of the cassette tape, I think it was a white cover with just a pink SP logo on the front... needless to say I didn't expect too much after seeing that. So that night I listened to it and I was so very confused. I could hear some incredibly awsome guitar riffs and beats in the background, but for some reason this band decided to layer in some crazy chaotic noises all over it so you never got a steady beat- like with typical bands.
I listened to the tape a couple of times and after a few listens I still didn't "get it". The only thing I could remember after the album was over was Ohgr muttering, "Kiss the master's feet." It still haunts me to this day. So I gave her back the tape a few days later, I didn't even copy it because I didn't think I'd really listen to it again. Well, fast forward a couple of months and you'll see me in a mom and pop record store. They dealt mainly in imports but had a fairly wide selection of out of prints and some obscure no-name bands. Well, curiosity killed my cat and I decided to see what else Skinny Puppy had done. So I saw a few cds, but none with the white cover and pink symbol on the front. So, I asked the guy that worked there which SP album was the best and he pointed me to "Too Dark Park" with it's strangely child like cover art. I figured, "What the hell, If this is the best..."
Imagine my surprise when I put this in my car stereo and cranked the bass up. I was stunned. THIS is their best album!? So I actually kept my car parked in that spot and didn't move until I was done with the first song, "Convulsion" which ends up being like my 4th favorite SP song. I don't know how or why, but something clicked. I finally got it. Maybe it was my 10" woofer or just how music sounds different in the car, or maybe it was because the tape was a lesser quality than the cd I had just purchased. I was speachless. I quickly scanned each song and listened to a minute or so of every song. When I was back to track #1, I turned my car off and walked back into that store with my checkbook. I bought every other SP album they had. You should have seen the look in that store clerks eyes.
Since then I have been a die hard SP fan and they remain my favorite band. To this day, no other album by any artist has ever had such an emotional impact on my musical taste. I love every SP album for different reasons, but this is the only one I consider to be perfect. Maybe it's my emotional attachment to it, but to me it is flawless.
This is an extremely savage, angry, but clever record. The layering in each song is nothing short of brilliant. If you dissect any one song apart, you could find enough music to create 2 or even 3 songs by any "normal" band. The thing I love about SP is that there is always a slight hint of the 80s in their music. Deep down, the underlying core of the music is 80s disco/rock with a sinister edge. Maybe more so in the older music than the "Too Dark Park" era. That might be a bad explaination of it, but that's what I think. Everyone should listen to this album, even if you hate it, it so deserves a listen. Turely one that will never be forgotten like so many mass produced shiesty bands today.
So now I say unto thee, "Kiss the master's feet!"
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