5/5 Top Ten Reasons Why This is a Great CD
  by Robert Pierson (Germantown, WI United States)
Top ten reasons why this is one of my favorite Skinny Puppy CD's. 10) It's sort of a greatest hits collection from the peak of their touring career. 9) It's unique in the fact that a band who relies on studio tricks has pulled off a really great live album. 8) cEvin Key's keyboard performance is more melodic and personal. 7) Assimilate lost it's out of place dance feel. 6) A great live performance of Addiction nearly equal to the original which is saying a lot because the original is a technological masterpiece. 5) Cool improvisation by Goettel. 4) Ogre's voice is mixed down. 3) Chainsaw and First Aid sound better than studio versions. 2) Great synth programming. And the number one reason why this is one of my favorites... It's fun to listen to and I bet the band had fun performing it. One final note, the CD I bought from Amazon.com had separate tracking for each song verses one big track.

5/5 Words like ice Cut and slice Announce my demise Christ why'd you die
  by Jonathan Dedward (Nowheresville, Slothwestern North America)
This CD is a nearly flawless recording of a show from Skinny Puppy's 1987 'Cleanse, Fold, and Manipulate' tour. As such, the sound quality is terrific and actually quite well mixed. I assume this was recorded straight off the soundboard, because there is little to no noise from the audience during the songs, but I could be wrong.

Some have been tempted to recommend this as a 'greatest hits' style compilation as well as a great concert document, because this contains many of the band's best tracks from their first four albums. I'd have to say that's a bit misleading, however. These are very harsh and aggressive versions of songs that were already somewhat harsh to begin with and that may turn off some who are just starting to appreciate the band's novel approach to music. While not drastically different in their concert form, everything is quite a bit more dense and chaotic here. Skinny Puppy turned up to 11.

Ogre's words are often even more garbled with distortion and there are many more layers applied to the familiar beats and rhythms Puppy provided on studio recordings. It's all very aggressive, heavy stuff. Dancey tracks like "Assimilate" are here presented with bleak intensity; sharpening the despair in the lyrics and reducing the club-friendly polish. "Anger" was a somewhat murky and subdued affair on 'Cleanse, Fold, and Manipulate,' but here it is pounding and ferocious. "Dig It" loses its electronic sheen and turns messy, drenched with guitar feedback. "One Time, One Place" features some gorgeous synth playing from Dwayne Goettel between squealing electronic punctuations. This concert performance is beautiful in an ugly way. It's powerful, arresting at times and I believe this gives us Skinny Puppy at their best. It's also almost almost too punishing and stark, sometimes unnervingly so. I like to listen to this loud, but usually make sure no one else is around first. Music this savage isn't very conducive to social interaction or peaceful cohabitation.

For me, this sort of signifies the end of Skinny Puppy's early (and best) period. Some very good work followed this, but when their next studio album arrived something seemed different. 'Ain't it dead yet?' shows us the period when the band were at their peak. They still enjoyed what they were doing, still got along and were consistently refining their art and growing as musicians. Easy five stars for this.

5/5 Essential Puppy
  by slug bait (Calgary, Alberta Canada)
i think this album should be one of the first ones that someone gets after too dark park. it is an amazing cd capturing puppy live, in a truly emotional and gripping and heavy form. assimliate is amazing.. this song is my favorite of all time, with its beautiful synth work at the chorus and its ominous bass during the verse. ogre's distorted vocals are highly effective and infectious... and the samples and keyboards done through the middle of the song when ogre is taking a break, sound simply chilling and it really grabs hold of your soul. the rest of the songs are likley all more intense and in some cases better versions than the orginal songs like addiction and first aid, anger... this cd is my favorite of all time, and has many of puppy's excellent songs on it. cant go wrong.. BUT make sure u get the version which on the tracklisting lists "one time one place" instead of the one that lists "god's gift maggot" or else you'll be getting a cd that is all one ONE track instead of seperate tracks.

4/5 The best Skinny Puppy album
  by Bret (USA)
I said it, and I mean it. This is their best. Even though there aren't any new songs on here, the way that it is put together... with all the songs flowing beautifully into eachother, makes this CD a better experience than any other Puppy album. If you like Skinny Puppy I would hope that this CD is in your collection, or at the top of your shopping list.

5/5 An excellent recording of early Skinny Puppy
  by Alexis Kolchevsky-Shepherd (alexisk@benez.com)
This is one of my favorite Skinny Puppy Cds. Hearing Skinny Puppy live really brings out the vitality of their music. "The Choke", "Addiction", and "Deep Down Trauma Hounds" are all particularly good on this album. Overall excellent, and very hard to stop listening to.