On June 12th, 1995, an era in Canadian music ended, as Skinny Puppy - perhaps the most important and influential electronic industrial band in history - split up. The break up played out like a high drama, complete with accusations, denials, anonymous mud-slinging, and forgeries. And the thing is: if you weren't on the Internet at the time, you probably didn't hear about it.

On August 23rd, 1995, Skinny Puppy's Dwayne Goettel died of a heroin overdose at his parent's home in Edmonton, AB. Although his death was given slightly more coverage in traditional media than the band's demise, it was once again the surfers of the mighty Infobahn who had the inside scoop. Before the story had hit the wire services, several online Puppy fans (including your's truly) had already spread the sad news.

The roots of these events extend back to 1993 when Skinny Puppy finished their contract with Vancouver based label Nettwerk Records and signed a deal with Rick Rubin's hot new label Def American (which later changed to American Recordings). Rubin and his small, rebellious label seemed to embody a spirit very similar to SP - a spirit that many felt had disappeared from Nettwerk since they had started enjoying the mainstream success of some of their other acts, most notably Sarah MacLachlan. The band was happy, the new label was happy, and a new Skinny Puppy album would be just around the corner.

Conversation and speculation on the Net, however, painted another story. Fans on the newsgroup rec.music.industrial (r.m.i.) talked of the in-fighting that was supposedly wracking the band. It was rumoured that lead singer Ogre's (aka Kevin Ogilvie) well known on and off relationship with heroin was back on again, much to the chagrin of the other two band members, Goettel and cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton). From all Internet accounts, it seemed likely that the title of Puppy's final Nettwerk album, Last Rights (sic), would prove to be strangely prophetic. Whether these rumours were true or not, SP persevered, and work on their new project, The Process, began. The band also "got wired" and began posting infrequent updates from their own email address to r.m.i., the SP fan mailing list (Smothered Hope, now replaced by Epilogue), and later, a newly created SP specific newsgroup (the vaguely named alt.fan.skinny).

The following months saw many delays in the work on The Process, with the biggest delay also being the most surprising: long time SP producer, collaborator and friend David Ogilvie (no relation to Ogre) suddenly left the project, only to be followed by a seemingly endless stream of producers, including Greg Reely, Roli Mosimann and Pigface's Martin Atkins. Ogilvie finally rejoined the project earlier this year, and things seemed to be back on track for a late summer release. Emphasis on "seemed".

On June 18th, a posting was made to r.m.i. claiming Ogre had left SP. Initially, the message was looked upon as just another rumour. But over the next couple of days, the rumour was confirmed by Ogre from the SP address, Key and Goettel from their own address, and several other associates of the band who are online. Ogre's posting said "the reasons (for the break-up) stem from both internal problems and my own lack of desire to work in a situation where the only glue that binds is that of A CONTRACT WITH A MAJOR LABEL" [emphasis his]. Key echoed these sentiments, saying that he blamed American Recordings for the break-up.

Following quickly on the heels of the break-up announcements came information from an anonymous source claiming to be close to the band - or, more specifically, close to Key and Goettel. The message stated that the split of SP was orchestrated by American and Ogre behind the backs of Key and Goettel. It claimed that the label was unhappy with the material that SP was working on, as evidenced by their interference in the recording process with the hiring of new producers, so they approached Ogre with an offer to sign his own side-project, W.E.L.T., if he would leave the band, rendering the American/Puppy contract null and void. When contacted for comment, a spokesperson at American not only denied knowledge of any such deal being cut, but denied that SP had even split up. Ogre also denied the allegations, saying that "no sum of money or record deal caused the break up". However, it has been confirmed that soon after the split, Ogre was in Seattle working on W.E.L.T. material.

Key and Goettel, meanwhile, had started the final mixing on The Process, which was given a tentative release date on American of mid-November, 1995. They also formed a private label, Subconscious, and were preparing material from their new project, Download, which also includes contributions from Mark Spybey (Dead Voices on Air) and a long time friend of Goettel's named Phil Western. This work continued until Goettel's tragic death on August 23rd. The news hit the Net early on 24th, hours before any official press releases appeared. Goettel's father, Rudy, was quoted in an Edmonton paper as saying that the news of Dwayne's death appearing on the Net caused a flurry of sympathy calls to the family, and many fans posted melancholy messages telling of times they had met Goettel and other SP experiences.

Official word of the death finally came late in the afternoon in the form of a press release from American. This release was the first acknowledgement from the label of the break-up, saying that Ogre had "surreptitiously left the band several months ago". It also included a statement from Ogre, but it seemed that no attempt had been made to contact cEvin Key. A release from Key followed on the 25th, blasting the American and Ogre statements as being "made by people who were not friends, nor did they support Dwayne". Key also made it clear that Dwayne, his "best friend and partner", was not an addict but had turned to heroin - a drug which he was against for most of his life - after a difficult break-up with his girlfriend.

Dwayne Goettel's death probably won't mark the end of this saga. The Process is still planned for release late this year or in early 1996, and a Download album should be available from Cleopatra as you read this. But it's clear that the last several months have seen an incredibly sad and, at times, almost pathetic ending to one of Canada's most important musical collectives. It was an ending which should not have happened in the manner that it did, and an ending that most people didn't even notice - and that's the saddest and most pathetic part of all.