As we noted just a few months ago, pioneering industrial band Skinny Puppy has produced some unsettling music during its 30-year run, and because the U.S. government is down with that scene—CIA director John O. Brennan is reputed to have an extensive collection of KMFDM bootlegs from the early ’90s—it has supposedly been using Skinny Puppy’s music to torture detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Maybe it’s just a case of the U.S. military loving the music but not getting the message—does defense secretary Chuck Hagel think “VX Gas Attack” advocates gassing people?—but the Canadian band is not amused. News broke last week that Skinny Puppy has billed the U.S. government $666,000 for unpaid royalties, though a military spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that the Department Of Defense had not yet received the invoice sent by Cevin Key, Skinny Puppy’s keyboardist.
Key told CTV, “I wouldn’t want to be subjected to any overly loud music for six to 12 hours at a time without a break.”
Especially that second half of Last Rights—it’s practically unlistenable.