From: darling@cellar.org (Thomas Darling)
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: * Complete Ministry CD Reviews *
Date: 24 Jul 92 03:02:33 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system

Complete Ministry CD Reviews
============================

Third in a series!  After getting good feedback (eeeeEEEEEERRRRR!!!!...)
on the Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy discographic reviews, here goes
another one.  Constructive criticism welcome.  One-line and other flames to
comp.sys.amiga.advocacy.

I've recieved a lot of requests do do a set of Front 242 reviews, so they're
probably next.  I just haven't gotten my hands on all the nifty reissues
yet.  Die Warzau is also a possibility, but for once I'd like to do one with
a happy ending.

Note: I didn't review Ministry's 12" singles collection; as usual, I stuck
to albums that are to be taken as a whole.


With Sympathy (1983)  **
""""""""""""""""""""""""

Typical early-80's euro-techno-pop in the style of Blancmange and Heaven
17.  As such, it's acceptible, but pretty lightweight.  The big strike
against it is Al's vocals; this Chicago kid's phony British accent is
laughable.

Jourgensen's since tried to disown this album as a record company's
creation, but the fact of the matter is, he wrote every song on it. 


Twitch (1986)  ****
"""""""""""""""""""

A pivotal album in the history of second-generation industrial music.
Al Jourgensen recruits Adrian Sherwood to graft his simple but striking
songs to driving, relentless beats.  Possibly the first album to combine
clang-n-bang samples with coherent songs.  It is accessible but not pop.
From the grating anthem "Just Like You" to the mishmash of all-electronic
techno-thrash at the end, _Twitch_ is a tour-de-force of machine music.

The album borrows from Cabaret Voltaire in terms of vocal sound and the
overall claustrophobia/paranoia factor, but for the most part it stands as
an original and innovative work.


The Land of Rape and Honey (1988)  *****
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Having stretched the limits of synth-and-sampler fare just a little,
Al (and sidekick Paul Barker) pick up guitars and kick on the distortion.

Since Jourgensen is no guitar virtuoso, he elects to assemble short samples
of six-string grunge into dense, rhythmic blocks, snippets of noise flying
about the stereo field alongside punchy drums and less identifiable blasts
of sound.  The result is a brilliant fusion of speed-metal and electronic
techno-thrash, more "cyberpunk" than "industrial."  "Diety" comes closest
to traditional guitar fare, but is rooted by icy digital drums and hornlike
samples.  "You Know What You Are," at the other end of the spectrum, lies
almost entirely in the MIDI realm...yet somehow fits in alongside the
prototypical guitar grunge.  "Flashback," the song of homicidal revenge, is
a high point, complete with unusual rhythm track and "Platoon" samples.

In between the extremes lie some amazing material.  "Hizbollah" is a
bizarre Eastern daydream.  "Destruction" somehow manages rawness from
within a sequencer's looped drum track.  "The Missing" is simple beyond
belief, and all the more powerful for it. 

_Land_ is a masterpiece, the finest fusion of man-made and mechanical
thrash to date.


The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste (1989)  ***
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

The guitar chops are improving and the subject matter is as focused as
ever.  _Mind_ is considerably less of a musical tangent from the previous
Ministry disc than we've come to expect from these guys, but it exhibits
refinement and expansion of sound.

Some tracks -- "Breathe," for instance -- bring to mind early Killing
Joke, with the layers of militaristic drums and piercing "wall of sound"
guitar.  Others, like "Burning Inside" are wholly Ministry; one can trace
the progression of this back to _Twitch_.

Overall, the album is much like the previous one, but with a more "live" or
"band" sound, if you will.  Similarly, there's a lot of diversity within
this sound.  "Thieves" is like shellshocked electronic Metallica with a
sampler and "Full Metal Jacket;" "Faith Collapsing" and "Dream Song" are
spacious and image-evocative.  But whereas _Land_ was brilliant from end
to end, a couple tracks on _Mind_ are weak and one, "Test," is lame in the
extreme.

 
Psalm 69 (1992)  *
""""""""""""""""""

Here, Jourgensen and company have completed the transformation from
electronic innovators to standard MTV "Headbanger's Ball" fare.  This disc
was sent back to the studio a few times for repair, and it shows; at the
core of all its bombast it is completely lacking in good songs. 

Virtually all traces of the innovative Ministry are gone, replaced by piles
of guitars and rapid-fire drums.  Once on the cutting edge of hi-tech
grunge, Ministry appear to have abdicated the throne, with the arrival of
bands like Godflesh and Prong coming from the other side of the fence. 
This is plastic thrash; it has lots of 32nd-note kick drums and distorted
guitar fifths, but it's empty and stilted. 

The subject matter is equally contrived.  Al and company take a token
stab at atheism/sacrilege, but it comes off less convincingly than the
pentagrams Motley Crue shoved at terrified mothers circa _Shout_at_the_
_Devil_.

The forced genre and lack of songwriting core are not a healthy
combination.  _Psalm_ is stillborn, and should have been aborted.

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