Ministry Albums
1983
With Sympathy – 45%
A synth pop album that even Jourgensen has disowned. It’s not badly made, but none of the songs are that memorable.
1986
Twitch - 67%
The second album has a lot of the mood of the previous one, but it has a much harder edgy quality. “Just Like You” still has English accent flavor and much of the attitude of the more industrial acts of that era (this album was recorded in London for full effect), while “We Believe” adds the gothic attitude and mechanical vocals that sets the band apart. The topics of the songs are more and more on the depressing angles of societies ills and each song average about six minutes. Their idols seem to be the English industrial, Mark Stweart, Cabaret Voltaire, and throbbing Gristle. Keith LeBlanc who would soon form Tackhead joins him for some procession work here. “Isle of Man” was a single released this same year, but honestly it out shines most of the songs on the actual record, mainly because its brief but also its one of the best mixes of nice melody and harsh repetition. Same for “Nature of Love” and “Everyday is Halloween”, songs released in 1985 but often attached to this record, more dark explorations of simplistic machine dance rock.
Ministry are an odd band at the point in their evolving career, as much as they love the darker subject matter and sounds of the blackness they stay away from jumping off into he void. There a re still a lot of synthesizers, and that with the drum machines that sound cheap even for the mid eighties give a sort of ‘soft’ feel to the music- see “Angel” which could be a song by Madonna or something. That song is still decent, but songs like “Over the shoulder” and the oddly groovy “My Possession” I don’t care if I ever hear again. The closing triad is three songs in one, each one with pounding mechanical beats: “Where Are You now” echoes a sort of looney tunes cartoon with found sound effects, “Crash and Burn is more of a train chugging along with no vocals, “Twitch” is the ending all clanging and banging noises. The ideas behind this album are grand, but the great songs are very few and far between.
Best Songs: Just Like You, Isle of Man, We Believe
1988
The Land of Rape and Honey - 88%
The obvious change on Ministry’s 3rd full length, the band adds heavy distorted to guitars to the mix. Honestly, it completely changes the sound and any pretense of beauty and melody disappears and they go for a type of pounding industrial rock that captures a lot of what came previously and blends it into their stew of synthesizers and drum machines. The opening Triad of songs are a testament to their new journey: “Stigmata” is an anthem for sure all sacrilegious and heart-piercing; “The Missing” is pure energy and off kilter vocals where ‘he’s missing’ is chanted on the wrong beat over and over then the keyboards come in and it sounds similar to Faith No More; “Deity” can be overwhelming for sure but in a good way, as it pummels us into submission just like the best hardcore music of its time, inserting some brass horns here and there. Similar to hip-hop of the time, Ministry’s industrial music was based on samples- guitar samples not yet live guitars, more sliced up tape manipulation than traditional musicianship. Jourgensen is a producer gone mad in the studio.
The approach is no longer ‘dance music’ and much more ‘I command you to dance’! Some songs do away with traditional vocal lines all together (more like repeating samples), like “Destruction” or the awe inspiring “You Know Who you Are” which is probably the best version of this pounding, scary rock n roll. Punk music enters the fray in ways Ministry never did before, and an argument could be made its more ‘Trash’ than ‘metal’ at most points- “Flashback” is all blurry and hateful, and the title track “The Land of Rape and Honey” is the chant to define their profound style. Early Metallica could be as big an influence as Big Black, but in many ways Jourgensen and cohorts are more of a band then ever (adding bassist Paul Barker and drummer extraordinaire Bill Rieflin) and definitely very original. While not perfect, “Golden Dawn” is a bit long like a left over from the last record and “Abortive” could have been left off all together (an ironic song name). With a sound that is focused and angry, Ministry make their first great album.
Bonus tracks: “Hizbollah” and the synth heavy but still in this new style “I Prefer” were added to many cd copies of the album and sort of add to the punky intensity, sounding like a faster version of Swans.
Best Songs: You Know Who You Are, Stigmata, The Missing
1989
The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste – 84%
Now that Ministry have found their sound, they immediately follow up on more of the same making them a force to be reckoned with at the tail end of the 1980s. This music is harsh and brutal, long and punishing, changing the meaning of industrial to something more akin to heavy metal with a constant pound behind it. Jourgensen’s vocals are always distorted, unleashing torrents of pain and rage in “Burning Inside” sort of like the mix of hardcore punk and trash metal. “Thieves” owes something to the ranting ways of Wire, especially Pink Flag era Wire. “Never Believe” dips into the madness of the Butthole Surfers except there is no ‘humor’ in Ministry’s music, this is as serious as the most serious psycho drama. Most songs on here are around five minutes or more in length. They move like the dances of the dead, like Public Image Limited did in their prime on “Cannibal Song”, a song meant to be paid loud at Halloween.
This album is very consistent, even if there are songs that might stand out more than others, the consistent thing is that Ministry have definitely found a confident way to sound here with no variation. That can go both ways, as “Breathe” to me is a little too much like opener “Thieves”, and “Faith Collapsing” serves no real purpose. But “So What” comes through as perhaps the most fun song, full of psychedelic effects and has the most changing in the way the drums go back n forth; and “Dream Song” ends everything by expanding the group’s sound to the extreme of haunting glory. Wherever the band goes from here, as long as they write great thrilling music people will keep listening.
Best Songs: Burning Inside, Dream Song, Thieves