Skinny Puppy's disintegration during the recording of the band's final album, The Process, in 1994 was a bitter and ultimately tragic ending to an important and influential electro-industrial band. Founding member cEvin Key, unhappy with the way the album was progressing in the hands of producer Martin Atkins, absconded with the tapes to Skinny Puppy's hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, leaving his longtime partner, Nivek Ogre in Los Angeles pondering the fate of the group the two had formed in 1984.

Things would get worse before they got better. In August 1995, keyboardist Dwayne Goettel was found dead of a heroin overdose in his parents' home. The tragedy ultimately brought about the completion of the album they had started with Goettel, but it couldn't heal the rift between the band's co-founders. The Process was released in February 1996 and the two went their separate ways -- Key would form Download, and Ogre, after touring with Pigface, pursued a solo project called OhGr.

"That whole period was kind of a bust all around," says Ogre, speaking from his home in Southern California. "There was no one thing that really kind of broke the back [of the band]. It was a bunch of sustained, multiple -- almost contusion-like -- smashes over the course of that recording period."

It is perhaps with a sense of unfinished business that Key and Ogre return in 2004 with the May 25th release of The Greater Wrong of the Right, the first new Skinny Puppy material to surface in eight years. It's a chance to put to rest long-haunting demons and ensure that the band's legacy isn't one shrouded in sorrow and regret. And though the idea of continuing on without Goettel was hard to imagine at first, it didn't ultimately prevent Ogre from reuniting with Key.

"Instead of using somebody's death as a reason not to do something," explains Ogre, "there was the idea of reconnecting with somebody who I shared a lot of time with. So, as far as remaining acrimonious with somebody, or the concept of 'I'll never do this again because of these elements not being place,' that fades away."

The collaboration that ultimately resulted in The Greater Wrong of the Right was set into motion when promoters of the Doomsday Festival in Dresden, Germany, began calling Key in the late Nineties to inquire about a one-off Skinny Puppy reunion. "I was going through some major changes in my life at the time and I just put a figure out there and they agreed to it," says Ogre. "[The show] seemed like a great thing to do, and it really was. We came off stage and there was a clap of thunder. Ten minutes later there's a torrential downpour."

Following the show, the pair spent a day together in Prague and discussed the possibility of recording together again. However, due to contractual obligations, that wouldn't become a reality for another few years.

Skinny Puppy in 2004 are indeed a different beast. While the band's dark musical elements and outspoken lyrics remain in tact, The Greater Wrong of the Right finds Ogre and Key rediscovering common musical ground. "We're still the same people, but there's better communication between the people inside the band," says Ogre. "We've always been exploring [musically] through darkness in order to try and find some light and peace of mind. Neither of us is there yet, but there's a freeing up of the whole thing in a lot of ways. It's an early chapter, too. There's a bit more playfulness in the music, but there's still kind of a dark construct underneath it."

That dark construct may well have been what ultimately caused Skinny Puppy's immolation in 1994, but a decade later Ogre is using it to further both the music and his own personal healing. "There's still an intense amount of anger and rage in me -- that's the uncompromised thing," he admits. "That's something that, through the approval of my therapist, I can totally pursue on stage."

Skinny Puppy tour dates:

6/11: Portland, OR, Roseland Theater
6/12: Seattle, Showbox
6/15-16: Chicago, Vic Theater
6/17: Detroit, TBD
6/19: Boston, Avalon Ballroom
6/20-21: New York City, Irving Plaza
6/22: Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
6/23: Philadelphia, Electric Factory
6/25: Atlanta, Masquerade
6/26: New Orleans, House of Blues
6/27: Houston, Verizon Theater
6/29: Denver, Ogden Theater
7/1: San Francisco, Grand Ballroom
7/2-3: Los Angeles, Henry Fonda Theater
7/4: Anaheim, Grove of Anaheim