Bites (150 Gram)

This review is relative to the 2017 vinyl re-release specifically. This is an important album in the history of industrial music and I enjoy adding a mint condition version of the sleeve to my collection, for that it gets two stars. As usual the problems are stemming from Nettwerk Records and their utter and complete incompetence. Considering they're 15+ years overdue on proper re-masters of their Skinny Puppy catalog, I had high hopes that this was the beginning of that process. Instead they somehow found a way to make it sound even worse than the original LP's pressed, in a low budget way, 33 years ago. The audio quality\fidelity is unimpressive to say the least- First off the bass frequencies are too much, not warm round bass, just a cheap EQ boost. The mid range is flat, boring, and without life. Worst of all is the lack of high frequency content, it isn't crisp, open, wide, lush, or airy in any way. Previous releases all sound superior to this. It's sad because the frequency content is all there to create an impressive remaster. I highly doubt Skinny Puppy themselves were involved in this release or would approve of it. The packaging is as bare bones as the original release- blank sleeve, no liner notes or any other information whatsoever about details of the re-release or vinyl mastering.Nettwerk- please for the sake of the fans, allow a respectable label to license your Skinny Puppy + Severed Heads back catalog so that they can do proper re-mastering and re-releasing of these classic albums... we beg you. Dark Entries 2017 re-release of Severed Heads Come Visit the big Bigot is a masterpiece in comparison to this garbage.

Skinny Puppy's music was a force to be reckoned with in the 1980's "Industrial" music scene, where the band's approach was to overwhelm the listener with a barrage of an intensely layered soundscape of sampled dialogue, tortured vocals, and punishing clamor. These elements were already set in place for the band's second(?) album BITES, although later recordings would flesh out their sound more successfully.Apparently, from information I've learned by checking out Puppy discographies by way of fan-sites, BITES has been subjected to quite a few modifications in song quantity and running order since it's initial mid-80's release. (At one time it was bundled onto a single CD with it's similar-sounding predecessor Remission EP). The current release of BITES pulls together nearly all the stray tracks from these various reconfigurations onto a single disc, perhaps diluting it's initial cohesive statement in the process. The problem that mostly dogs BITES is that it's too heavily weighed down with an overabundance of instrumental and filler tracks. Its not so much that individually these additions are terrible, but collectively they do detract from the overall flow of the record. Some sound like underdeveloped demo material ("Dead Doll" and "Falling" in particular) while others are duplicated on other Puppy albums of this time period ("Film", "Icebreaker", and "Love"). The tracks with the sore-throated barkings of vocalist Ogre fare a little better, such as "Assimilate" and "The Choke", but elsewhere some of the vocal melodies aren't as strong or memorable. Its overlong running-time practically begs to be trimmed in half and the fun is in the individual listener to decide for him or herself to create the perfect track-list.I must make exception for the two outstanding instrumentals that conclude this CD. These two tracks, "The Centre Bullet" and the unlisted "One Day", are two of the best works I've heard from SP ever. Both are fascinating for their serenity, something Puppy is generally not renowned for. "Bullet" is nearly 10 hypnotic minutes of slow motion pulsating synths and rain-droplet keyboarding. "One Day" is a robotic lullaby with a eerie creaking sound as it's percussion. Both tracks easily foreshadow the works of 90's electronic musicians such as Aphex Twin and Autechre.I am going to give BITES a mediocre rating for the amount of filler tracks and that I feel there are better recordings by this band one should start out with (there are many other reviews found on this site as to which record that should be). Undeniably the band's sound would be further augmented with the arrival of third-member Dwayne Goettel on BITES' successor Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse where the instrumental offerings would stand on equal-footing with (or in the case of "Stairs and Flowers", surpassing) the vocal songs.FINAL RATING: 2.5 out of 5FAVORITE TRACKS: "Assimilate", "Icebreaker", "Centre Bullet", "One Day"

Some songs on this album last a good amount of time other songs last about 1:00 minute which most of them are short but songs like 'Assimilate' 'The Coke' 'Deadlines' 'Last Call' all these alone are worth geting the album! if you like collecting albums and if you like the band! but if you don't like either of those options i would recomed downloading those songs alone.

One of the Great Ones. The re-release is fantastic!

The best SP's Album

Great album

Bites and bits dig it!

An very dark album. I enjoyed it!