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. 1986's Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse saw Dwayne Goettel's introduction into the group and marked a shift in Skinny Puppy's sound from dark synth-pop to a more elaborate form of abrasive industrial music. 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, and work on VIVIsectVI began at Mushroom Studios, Vancouver in mid-1988. 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. Growing up, Skinny Puppy's vocalist, Nivek Ogre, believed that animal experimentation was necessary. After researching the topic, he became more and more disgusted, eventually reaching the point where he was against all forms of animal testing. To compound this disillusionment, in 1983, Ogre's father died and a record distribution company that was set to support one of his early projects dissolved. In the resultant lurch, he wrote a song called "K-9" about the world seen through a dog's eyes. "K-9" became the first Skinny Puppy song and appeared on the group's debut release, Back & Forth (1984). As the band further developed, the idea of life from an animal's perspective continued to come to mind, and VIVIsectVI especially showcased the concept. The album's title, VIVIsectVI, is a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism via the