Most of those years were spent as a threesome with cEvin Key, Ogre and Dwayne Goettel, who became known for experimenting with electronic sounds, sampling horror movies and delivering performances with enough images, fluids and gore to turn a stomach.

It all came to a screeching halt in 1995 when Ogre left the band and Goettel died of a heroin overdose. "It's not something that I dwell on," Key says on the phone from his home in L.A. "But I also like to talk about [Dwayne] like he's sort of still around."

Key and Ogre continued work on their solo projects as Skinny Puppy lay dormant. It was a welcome surprise nine years later when the pair released "The Greater Wrong of the Right" and followed it with a tour.

"We came off the tour with a desire to go back into the studio and make an album," Key says about "Mythmaker," their latest CD. "There were a few personal tragedies and traumas, not unlike any Skinny Puppy album, but it seems to have more meaning this time."

Between tours, Key completed work on the limited-edition "From the Vault II," available only on his Web site, subconsciousstudios.com. Seven new albums come in the package, which includes his work as Download, The Tear Garden, PlaTEAU and the new Skinny Puppy collectible, "Back and Forth Vol. 7."

Key's creative stimulation came late in 2005 as "we had just done 60-something shows around the world and we needed to sit down and express what we felt."

That also prompted him start his latest endeavor: Scaremeister studios ("Scaremeister" being a new moniker given to Key by Arnold Schwarzenegger), where a demo reel shows his sound work and scoring capabilities.

Key is in the final planning stages for the band's shock-and-awe stage show, but hopes to come off the "Mythrus" tour with the same inspiration. He tentatively plans to "go back into the vault" and dust off old Skinny Puppy videos and Tear Garden studio sessions to put together a documentary or film.

The live DVD that followed the "Greater Wrong of the Right" tour featured a video documentary, "Eurotrauma," from the band's 1988 European tour. "That's my favorite part, actually," Key says. "You look at the people's faces on the front row of that show and you see something you don't see anymore, like wonder or some weird type of lost-in-time statement, and I really like that."

Key says he and Ogre agree that the way the set flows for this tour makes it a possible favorite. "We want to add a new level of the reason why we are there, sort of like a new statement."

Must-have albums by Skinny Puppy

* "Bites and Remission" (1987) - 17 tracks combine much of Skinny Puppy's early work.

* "VIVIsectVI" (1988) - It's pronounced as Vivisectsix, but plays on the ideas of 666 and the link to vivisection (animal testing). Skinny Puppy has always made statements about animal rights, and this album highlights those sentiments.

* "Too Dark Park" (1990) - Industrial-music fans often cite this release as an essential part of their collection.

* "Last Rights" (1992) - The album comes with track 10 missing, misaligning the songs, due to a Timothy Leary sample on the song "Left Handshake" not being cleared before press time.

* "The Greater Wrong of the Right" (2004) - The first album since 1985 that Skinny Puppy released without Dwayne Goettel.

Hark, a bark

* SKINNY PUPPY performs with Otto Von Schirach on Tuesday at The Depot, 400 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City. Doors open at 8 p.m.

* TICKETS are $23 in advance, $25 day of, at all SmithsTix outlets.