Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

×

Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

Close

UK five CD box set containing a quintet of alums from the Industrial legends, all housed in mini LP sleeves. Includes the albums Twitch, The Land Of Rape & Honey, The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (Live), and Psalm 69

~ wiki

×

Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

Close

×

Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

Close

The name Ministry brings to mind images of big, dumb guitars and arena rock sensibility. But before they created their influential third album, The Land of Rape and Honey, there was Twitch. And this album probably owes more to Front 242 than anything. The only thing remotely resembling their later music is the use of psychotic sampling that Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker will always be known for. A good example is "Like You," the first track on the album. Other differences include Patty Jourgensen singing on the song "The Angel" and Al Jourgensen actually trying to sound unaggravated at times. It's interesting though repetitive at times ("Crash and Burn"), and if you care to listen to Jourgensen's rants, he really does have something to say. "Isle of Man" tells the story of the arrival of Columbus and how the persecution of the Indians will be revisited on the offenders in time. Make no mistake: this sounds nothing like any of Ministry's other albums; listeners may hear how they became what they did.

by Alan Escher, AMG

×

Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

Close

The Land of Rape and Honey represented Ministry's stylistic breakthrough, combining assaultive percussion, samples, synths, and (sometimes) crunching guitars with distorted, barking vocals. For all the emphasis on the group's metal/industrial fusion, it's really only the first three (and best) tracks on Rape and Honey – "Stigmata," "The Missing," and "Deity" – that employ guitars extensively. The remainder of the album merely suggests heavy metal aggression through its electronic and sampled elements; it is far more industrial in feel, even though it's just as dark. Ministry was the industrial band that, more than any other, appealed to metal fans, and it was The Land of Rape and Honey that began to lay claim to that status.

by Steve Huey, AMG

×

Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

Close

In what many consider to be Ministry's peak, the band creates another wonderful album to follow The Land of Rape and Honey. Fusing thrash guitars with excellent synth and percussion work, Ministry lay the foundation for even more followers of the band's music. But what makes the album even more commendable is the unique flair and the avoidance of cliché elements that have brought down the guitar-heavy industrial-rock genre. Purists might argue that Ministry have given up these roots; but it's plain to see that the roots remain, and are only revamped by the necessary progression of a band that has been around for so many years. The sound is Ministry's, most definitely.

by Marc van der Pol, AMG

×

Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

Close

By the time of A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, Ministry had amassed enough of an arsenal of gear and a hardcore coterie of fans to make the band's shows literally explosive affairs in some cases. Also released as an accompanying video, which shows more than a few audience members seemingly uncaring about potential dismemberment, In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up is only six songs long, but delivers big time for each of them. The weird atmosphere of glowering goth and avant thrash metal that combined with the more direct dancefloor antics of Alain Jourgensen, Paul Barker, and company makes for a particularly potent combination live. Jourgensen's hoarsely roared, wracked vocals, given just enough electronic distortion to really cause some blood to flow, suit the various reinterpretations of The Land of Rape and Honey and A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste material, three songs from each. For the most part the live takes closely resemble the studio cuts aside from length; while the galloping "Deity" sticks to the original's three-minute headcrush, "So What" turns into an extended vamp, arguably going on a little too long but generally having fun with its own horror-movie slasher theatrics, as well as kicking off with a slow burn, just creepy enough start. The whooshing swoops and siren noises that kick off "Burning Inside" show how well Ministry can rework material for maximum impact as needed. The end of the disc provides the real highlights, with absolutely brutal versions of "Thieves" and a nervous, intense "Stigmata" polishing things off; Jourgensen's profane rant against anything and everything at the end in particular reaches some sort of weird apotheosis of unalloyed hatred. Occasional comments to the crowd along the lines of, "Looks like we got a little frisky bunch here!" show that for all the musical and lyrical violence, Ministry knew how to keep a sense of humor intact – something more than a few followers forgot.

by Ned Raggett, AMG

×

Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

Close

Easily one of the most anticipated albums from that year, especially after Nine Inch Nails had helped bring industrial metal to the mainstream with the success of the overtly Ministry-worshipping Pretty Hate Machine, Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed & the Way to Suck Eggs represented the high point of Alain Jourgensen and Paul Barker's incarnation as loud-as-hell electro-thrashers. The pump had been primed the previous year with the fierce "Jesus Built My Hot Rod," featuring Gibby Haynes from Butthole Surfers on vocals ranting over a galloping molten explosion of beats and feedback. Presented in a slightly edited version here, it's still the high point of the album, while a reworked version of its B-side, "TV Song" (here called "TV II" and with Jourgensen on vocals instead of Chris Connelly), also makes for some good noise. Throughout, however, Ministry as a unit shows their facility for straightforward, brutal noise crossed with clinical, on-the-money arrangements, whether it's the collage of crowd-riot samples bubbling throughout "N.W.O." or the chantings of Christian praise on the title track. As a role model for any number of nu-metallers down the road, Psalm 69 is often terribly underrated, but where Ministry succeeds while so many failed easily has to do with sheer vitriol only slightly tempered by the overwhelming hugeness of the songs. Consider the massive impact of the drums on "Just One Fix" as they lead into tightly wound, downward-spiral riffing or the hyper-speed clatter of "Hero" and "Corrosion." Jourgensen's rasped lyrical visions of a corrupt America, drug addiction, mindless patriotism, and religious hypocrisy aren't per se revelatory, but anyone who lived through the Bush years – either father or son – might find plenty to sympathize with. Secret highlight: "Scarecrow," which takes the massive slow pound of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and takes it to a strung-out, harrowing new location.

by Ned Raggett, AMG

×

Ministry - Original Album Series (2011)

Close