And you thought you had some skeletons in your closet...

Long before Ministry began terrorizing the listening public with jackhammers of sound and heaviness, Al Jourgensen started out his long musical journey as a clean cut new wave dance artist. That's right. He actually existed before that mess of hair and the old cowboy hat. In fact, the inner sleeve photo of Mr. Jourgensen finds him to be a beau that even a churchmouse could bring home. Needless to say, Ministry as certainly gone quite a ways from Point A to Point Z.

On one hand, With Sympathy is a fairly decent collection of early 80s club songs. I admit I can actually sit through the whole thing without shuddering, but granted there's a huge smirk on my face the entire time. Perhaps growing up in the 80s allows me to tolerate this sort of stuff, but it reminds me mostly of something my brother might have listened to as a freshman in high school. The music is exceedingly polite with every single new wave trapping you can think of. There's some strong melodies and quite a bit of catchiness. However, the technology of 1983 makes this record sound extremely dated and amusing for all the wrong reasons. I can only imagine the reaction fans of Psalm 69 finding this in the store and expecting their necks to be ripped out.

Granted, every Ministry fan on the planet needs to hear this album solely to catch Al Jourgensen playing music so polite and white bread that even Mr. Cleaver would approve. The amusement factor is quite high, but it's definitely nothing more than a historical curiosity. Had Ministry not given us "Just One Fix" and shredded the eardrums of countless freaks since, this would be just another lost, forgotten early 80s club record.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 06/2003

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And with the abrasive, chainsaw imitation voice of Al Jourgensen at the beginning of "Stigmata", the dancefloor music phase of Ministry was over. Ministry had existed primarily as a new wave group at the beginning of their existence but along the way, Jourgensen deviated into remixing and more abrasive forms of music. Teaming up with Paul Barker, the revamped Ministry undertook a new, much more vicious approach to music that incorporated some new wave dance techniques plastered with the sonic corrosiveness of industrial music. The Land of Rape and Honey is a quite jarring record and one that sets the stage for the Ministry most are more familiar with.

The songs on The Land of Rape and Honey vacillate between the heavy guitar and pulsating, throbbing percussion of "Deity" and "The Missing" to songs that breathe a bit more, such as "You Know What You Are" or "Abortive". "Flashback" demonstrates not all is well in Jourgensen's world as it is a very hateful song. There are moments in the album that tend to lose the listener as the Ministry machine was not completely revved up, particularly if you had heard 1989's The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and checked out their older discography. With some of the songs being utterly capable of tearing down old apartment buildings and others being a bit too sublime to even dent a small Geo, the impact of the album is lessened somewhat. Regardless, the good songs on here outnumber the bad and for anyone who wants to see how Ministry evolved, this is a good item to pick up.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 07/2001

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This album is simply just one incredible kick to the head and one exquisite way to warp perception just a tad. When this album came out in 1989, I picked up a copy and it completely blew my socks off, shoes first. Not only was this album complete with incredible production values (you have to admit Alain Jourgensen, for all his substance abuse, knows how to tweak knobs), weird samples and voices, and intense music, but it also was the kind of record you couldn't stop playing because there was always something you might have missed on the previous listen. As it stands, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste is still easily my favorite revelation from this Ministry, even a decade later. Since the band hadn't quite delved into their trip through the 90s and the subseqently good (but not great) music, there was a definite freshness to what they were accomplishing.

The album features a bevy of guest musicians, including vocalist Chris Connelly and many others. Their contributions tend to get highly warped by Jourgensen and Paul Barker, Ministry's other mainstay member. Connelly, for instance, sounds nothing like the Bowie-esque crooner of his solo albums in his appearances on the album. But regardless of who appears where, it is the songs that stand out most prominently. With the exception of the tedious "Cannibal Song" and the fairly tepid "Faith Collapsing", every song here is incredible in its own way. "Burning Inside", "Breathe" and "Thieves" have some of the most aggressive moments on the record, using waterfalls of percussion and precision riffs. "So What" is downright creepy but has a strong allure regardless. "Test" actually features a rap over extremely bombastic music, a precursor to a certain Rage Against Inanimate Objects.

Although you know massive amounts of illicit substances were probably used in creating all this finely honed chaos (yes, very much the oxymoron, but Ministry does just that), there is a certain method to all this insanity. The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste is one of the most fulfilling records of the late 80s and definitely one of the finest things Ministry has set to tape in their entire long existence.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 12/2000

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In one of the increasingly rare instances where a live album is as essential as a studio release, Ministry's documentation of their insane 1989 tour on In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up is one of the most bone tearing, intense live recordings I can think of. The tour from which these six songs were taken featured up to nine people on the stage at any given point and the resulting wall of sound is sure to unhinge the doors to your bedroom and cause pictures to fall from the wall. And that's if you only set the volume at "1".

Although I suspect a little studio doctoring took place, the energy and intensity of the Ministry live experience is quite intact. The EP opens up with two of The Land of Rape and Honey's most churning, throbbbing burners, most likely devastating half the audience. The rest of the EP is a bit of a letdown after those two tracks. Regardless, the songs retain the flavor of the original and stay very true to the studio counterparts. There does seem to be an infusion of adrenaline involved but it doesn't detract from the precise performance. The most amusing part may be Al Jourgensen's profanity filled diatribe at the end of "Stigmata", a rant that is sure to offend nearly every special interest group you can possibly think of.

Given the amazing dose of intensity this EP offers, it is as necessary as any of the Ministry studio albums. Ministry is well known for their violent shows and with music this decisively aggressive, it's no wonder why.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 09/2001

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Ministry concerts kick some serious ass, no doubt about it. A friend's friend came out of a pit at The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste tour covered in blood and vomit, neither one his. I nearly got my arms broken at the Filth Pig tour from being crushed against the barricade. My vertically challenged friend who was smashed in behind me felt up a drunken first grade teacher. Wild things start to happen when Hypo Luxa and Hermes Pan take the stage…

Something peculiar sure went on with these two bootleg recordings of the February 13, 1990 concert in Omaha, Nebraska, on the tour supporting The Mind. Interestingly, the two discs share identical errors in spelling and songwriting credits although they are issued by different companies and, while both successfully capture the ferocity of live Ministry, one is virtually unlistenable.

Take a guess--which do you think would be worse? The version by the famously meticulous Germans (Imtrat), or the notoriously disorganized Italians (KTS)? So much for Teutonic precision—Live USA is possibly the worst-produced CD for which I have ever had the misfortune to spend twenty bucks. Good God, it's horrible. The guitar cuts in and out between dull muddiness and shrieking, cacophonous dominance—cringe factor of 9.8 on the Earsplitting Scale. Vocals are buried. The drums and bass are fuzzy. Matter of fact, the whole disc is buried in fuzz. The solitary highlight is Burning Inside, which is missing from its Italian counterpart—all 1:38 worth of it, anyway.

However, liner notes are what is missing from Live USA--blank paper on the backside of the cover art is more appropriate for a single than a full-length disc.

Even Ministry's trademark piledriver rhythmic attack can't survive this lousy treatment and the songs suffer, although not as much as the listener's ears, and transform an otherwise worthwhile disc into a coaster. A coaster with teeth, true, but still a coaster. Live USA is a crappy, crappy CD that I don't trade in for two reasons. First, no store would give me more than five bucks and one of these days I hope to find some moron who'll give me twenty for it; second, it's a useful reminder that, in spite of being a legend in my own mind, I do dumb things.

Trip to Hell, on the other hand, kicks ass. Free from the shortcomings which destroyed Live USA, Alien (sic), Paul, and company come in loud and clear to bash your synapses into submission. Trip to Hell is far better sonically—vocals, synths, guitars, bass, drums and cymbals are distinct and mixed at appropriate levels—but retains the slightly fuzzy tone that tells you it's not overdubbed in the studio. Another advantage is that all but one of the tracks are several seconds longer than on the other, inferior version, which allows for complete intros and more appropriate ends to the songs. The exception is "Land of Rape and Honey", which is shorter by 28 seconds; however, it ends on a decisive note rather than ever-so-slowly fading out in an annoying manner. Additionally, the mere presence of liner notes is a big improvement from Live USA. They aren't very helpful, but they're amusing--the author thinks that the Revolting Cocks are equally important to Ministry.

Whereas Trip to Hell kicks ass, Live USA licks ass--it just makes me want to break my CD player; Trip to Hell makes me want to mosh and break other stuff, which is good, I suppose. If you are deaf and can't tell the difference between good and crappy production, go ahead and buy Live USA. But if you value your eardrums, buy Trip to Hell.

Review by Jonathan Arnett

Review date: 07/1999

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This disc is kind of like a fungus . . . it grows on you. The first time I listened to it, I was driving with the windows down in my car, which isn't the best place to listen to a new disc. Even so, I really enjoyed the first and third tracks. The rest I wasn't so crazy about and, after reading a few negative reviews (see above), I was ready to write off Dark Side… as a loser. But then a funny thing happened--I went to the concert and was surprised at both how good the new songs sounded live and how well the sax player fit into the band structure. So a few days later, I thought to myself, "What the heck, it's only an hour out of my life that I'd probably waste anyway," and gave the disc another spin. I'm really glad that I did, 'cuz Dark Side… is actually a decent album.

The nearly universal reaction of Ministry fans whom I know that have listened to Dark Side… seems to be (Hank Hill voice) "whut the hell?" However, it's actually not that much of a departure from Ministry's previous albums. The most radio-friendly song, "Bad Blood," sounds like it's from The Mind… era, which makes sense because that's when its riff was written. "Supermanic Soul" sounds flat and punkish, something vaguely like "TV Song"/"TV II." And all the other songs, with two exceptions, are logical descendents of the drone sound featured on Filth Pig. In fact, I prefer this disc to Filth Pig. The saxophone and banjo add a whole new dimension to Ministry's trademark sound, while the new disc's songs are more nuanced and better produced than on the previous album.

Overall, Dark Side… is a solid collection of tracks. On the downside, "Eureka Pile" is really long and "Kaif" and "Vex and Siolence" tend to blend together; even so, those three songs are still enjoyable. The departures from Ministry's usual style are especially worth a listen. "10/10," which refers to Al Jourgensen's birthdate, is a head-bobber with an off-kilter riff that's positively groovy, man. "Step" is a fun little ditty with preening-rock-star lyrics and copious references to Alcoholics Anonymous literature--and if you're lucky, you may even hear it on the radio.

Dark Side… is not a disc to play and rock out to, like Psalm 69. It's more of a disc that will gain meaning each time you play it. So if you hated it the first time, give it another chance. Toss the disc in your player when you're in a mellow-ish mood, concentrate on the underlying riff, and delegate the vocals and guitar solos to the back of your mind. You may be surprised at what you'll hear.

Review by Jonathan Arnett

Review date: 10/1999

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