skinny puppy - Rabies remastered / original

Skinny puppy is one of my favorite bands - an intelligent band which explored sounds boundaries and creates music which transmits aggression and beauty, for me every album they did from 1984 until 1992 ( include Last Rights ‎) was fascinating adventure, I have respect to the albums which came after this period, but they do not touch me like the earlier albums.

Rabies has great tracks like Rivers, Hexonxonx and the magnificent Worlock which made me stunning , when I heard this track at the first time I just felt that what I here is the cry of the robots , this track is a demonstration of unbelievable Heights of emotion and power.

from listening to skinny puppy cds - Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse , Cleanse Fold And Manipulate ‎ , VIVIsectVI , Too Dark Park and Last Rights ( original issues vs reissues 1999 and 2001 , I learned that they all Identical in terms of volume , the reissues sound Just a little bit more open but not sharper or louder ( which is great),

Rabies is a different subject : I read that the original cd 1989 was mastered mistakenly with Dolby B noise reduction ( The most favorite tool for the forum members )
this cause to a very muffled and extreme low sound and also cut of the high frequencies , the band was very disappointed from the sound and demanded from the record company to correct this error and remastered the cd, the remastered was published at 1993 only in Canada and at 1998 in the U.S.A ( reissue of the 1993 remastered.

I have the remastered cd version and I would like to ask if do anyone of you have the original cd version 1989? if so, would you please share your opinion on the sound?
your impressions will be very much appreciated.

p.s . The error is only on the original cd and not on the Vinyl.

Skinny Puppy - Worlock

 

Good morning, I have not heard the re-issue, but I can post a small sample of a track of your choice that you can a/b from the original US release

 

Worlock or Hexonxonx will be great , thanks!
The remastered is loud but not over the top and not louder than Too dark park, I like the sound of the remastered.

 

US Capitol JAX 7c 1-1-7 CDP 7930072
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wdzb19ddoqa3s44/hex samp.wav

 

Wow, the track from the original really has extreme low volume , I can hear that the dolby noise reduction completely smashed the song .

 

The dynamics are less on the remaster than the original but given that it was remastered at the start of the loudness trend that's no surprise: http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?search_artist=skinny+puppy&search_album=rabies

I own both and honestly this might be one of those instances where the remaster, though less dynamic, is better. There is way more detail in the remaster, if you listen to the track warlock there are hi-hat samples throughout that are simply not audible in the original, they come across as thin ticks leading me to think they were just some synth noise but the remaster reveals they are indeed hi-hats, maybe synth hi-hats but they sound good. The driving guitar on Tin Omen also sounds much better on the remaster. The best way to describe the entire sound for the original is muffled.

 

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Thanks for the detailed explanation,

In most cases I prefer original cds versions than remastered versions
but this remastered sounds nice.

 

I'll have to check out the remaster, thanks for the info on this release, had no idea it was screwed up, hah still have the old box front I bought it in

 

Thank you for giving me the impetus to re-listen to this on a Sunday morning. I don't own any of the other remastered CDs and I quit listening to them after Last Rights.

 

Last Rights is the last album of skinny puppy which transmits genius.

 

I'm listening to the CD single versions of Tin Omen, and Worlock, those may be the best versions of those two tracks although the LP mix of Worlock isn't the same as the one on the CD, it's missing the longer intro and starts immediately with the beat. These are not as compressed as the remaster and sound great with lots of detail. So maybe if they had just not messed with that dolby B the original CD would have been the go to copy.

 

Pure energy from Bootlegged

 

Very true, They sound nice on the Singles Collect

 

A good friend of mine has a theory that most musical genius is expended by age 30, doing a quick wikipedia check they were 30 when Last Rights was being made so I guess this is another confirmation. I have a thread somewhere else on here about the theory and it's largely hard to refute. There are some artists that have had good albums after this age, but by and large their best stuff is 30 or less. Obviously this doesn't hold true with blues, country, or jazz.

 

This is one of my favorite tracks from the album , such a unique track,
the vocals transmits powerful melancholic beauty, sounds like Lament from another galaxy.

Skinny Puppy - Choralone

 

I have the original on cassette (!) and always thought the awful Dolby sound was due to a bad tape. Then I was told the cd is exactly the same due to the fckup.
It really does sound awful. Why they never corrected this in a timely fashion is beyond me. If I needed this, I'd get the lp.

 

Scared the crap out of me when I first heard this through headphones @15 years old,lol

 

At the Graduation party I asked the DJ to put this song, I told him that it is a quality pop band from Canada LOL
It was worth just to see the faces of the students and the Teachers,
there were some metal fans which enjoyed and were interested who is the band ...
the dj was a friend of my sister so he Collaborate and played the song until the end

 

Just picked up Rabies today. Mine is definitely a remaster — looks somewhat brickwalled, but sounds OK. I also have the Warlock single CD which sounds amazing.

 

Unfortunately the original cd sounds very bad due to the fact that the music buried under Dolby B noise reduction so its true that the remastered is loud but its the only way to listen to this great album. The single worlock sounds great but the lack of the beautiful Intro is very significant for me and its a shame it was cut from the single.

 

Finally after all these decades picked up the corrected version, the clarity compared to my old Capitol is apparent, while it is borderline bricked, it's a huge improvement, thanks Noomi for bringing it to my attention, thought the old cd was just recorded poorly, the bass is all screwed up

 

I did as well thanks to this thread. It is noticeably better sounding.