Ministry - Cover Up

Label: 13th Planet
Catologue Number: 02028611712
Format: CD
Date: 2008
Style: Industrial Metal
Rating: 7/10
Reviewer: Sidney James

Cover Up continues Al Jourgensen’s fascination with cover versions which began with the Revolting Cocks demolition of Oliver Newton John’s (Let’s Get) Physical, and saw various projects do covers of Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Black Sabbath, The Doors and Magazine. Cover Up is also meant to act as the book end to his music career and the final chapter or should that be epilogue in the 28 year existence of Ministry.

The first thing that struck me about Cover Up is the number of 70’s rock numbers the album features, which strikes me at odds with a someone who released a track called 70s rock must die. Then again as anyone who has followed the circus that is Ministry, nothing is ever as straight forward as it appears.

Kicking of proceedings with a superb cover of the Stones Under My Thumb that uses some excellent string and horn arrangements, Cover Up is a blast throughout. This is Ministry having fun and being free of the anti-Bush rhetoric that has consumed the last three releases. The heavy use of guest vocalists including Burton C Bell and Josh Bradford also adds some thing fresh to the industrial grind thrash that has become the band’s hallmark.

The album never again hits the peak of the opening cover but is still makes for an adrenalin fuelled ride throughout. The further highlights being a thrashed up but still groove heavy cover of Golden Earring’s Radar Love, which should keep the Dutch contingency of this site happy and a two part take on What Wonderful World which nicely surprises with its gentle opening before ripping into something a lot heavier in the second half.

All in all Cover Up isn’t going to make anyone radically change their views of Ministry, but as an example of how a covers album should be done it’s up there with the best of them.

Ministry - Twelve Inch Singles 1981-1984

Label: Wax Trax
Catologue Number: WAXCD035
Format: CD
Date: 1985
Style: Synthpop / New Wave / EBM
Rating: 5/10
Reviewer: Sidney James

Compilation albums are either normally greatest hit collections or odds and sods collections of rare and unreleased tracks. Ministry’s 12” collection falls into the later and in no way would ever fall into the former. The collection spans the period between Ministry’s debut album ‘With Sympathy’ and their second ‘Twitch’. If you know what these albums sound like then you’ve got a fairly good idea of what to expect. For those not in the know the sound is a cross between early 80’s synthpop and harder European dancefloor sounds. With the emphasis being more on the synthpop this time around. Imagine later Depeche Mode meeting Howard Jones in a dark alleyway and your half way there.

The album starts off Cold Life, which was actually released before With Sympathy. It has all the hallmarks of synthpop but with a slightly funky new wave bass line. The song comes across as a mix of Magazine and Fad Gadget. Both, big influences on early Ministry. The later Dub Version adds a bit more echo and strips down the lyrics making the track marginally more interesting, but still does not really cause any great excitement.

Next up is (Everyday is) Halloween and I must admit that although it is another slice of cheesy synthpop, there is something I really like about the track. It just has a classic hook and the lyrics just make me smile every time I hear the song. It’s one of those songs that you know you should never really admit to liking. I can imagine a thousand Ministry purists ripping me to pieces for this admission. The track also appears as remixed version where the rhythm is beefed up for the dancefloor. It’s not a bad remix but lacks the charm of the original.

The final two tracks are All Day and the Nature of Love; both are closer to the darker synthpop of Twitch than the rest of the album. Harder synth lines and beats marks form the core of the two tracks.. Both tracks are okay, but really lack the cutting edge of the best tracks from Twitch. All Day actually turns up as a stronger reworked version on that album. Again we are also treated to stripped down remixes o f these two tracks which also again don’t do much to add or detract from the original versions.

This collection really is of curiosity value only and probably should be avoided by any that prefers the harder guitar orientated sound of later Ministry. It has been a while since I have listened to this album and it will probably be a lot time until I dig it out of the library that is my record collection. One for the collector and the obsessive, rather than as an essential musical purchase.

Ministry - Filth Pig

Label: Warner Bros Records
Catologue Number: 9362-45838-2
Format: CD
Date: 1996
Style: Industrial Metal / Alternative Rock
Rating: 7/10
Reviewer: Sidney James

Ministry after the release of Psalm 69 seemed destine for mega stardom on a level with their other industrial rock peers Nine Inch Nails. The crossover than Ministry had achieved had left in its wake a thousand wannabes armed with a sampler and rock hard guitar sound. However with the release of Filth Pig, Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker decided to move away the sound they had created with A Mind is a terrible thing to taste and Psalm 69 and move Ministry away from the copycats and into less commercial realms.

The first thing you notice about Filth Pig is that it all seems a lot slower and heavier than previous Ministry releases. Where as the bulk of Psalm 69 seemed to be about how fast and controlled Ministry could play, Filth Pig replaces this with a slow low and heavy grind. The over riding influence on the sound is that of Black Sabbath, a band that Al Jourgensen had paid tribute to with the 1000 Homo DJ’s cover of Supernaut. In fact most of Filth Pig could be seen as a cybernetic remake of the classic Black Sabbath sound, heavy groove bass and controlled riffing.

The opening track Reload is the closest we get to classic Ministry, the stop start nature of the track reminds me of tracks like Thieves and TV II. The rest of the album comes as a shock to those expecting more cyberthrash. The second track Filth Pig manages to fit a harmonic into the slow motion sound that dominates the album and probably creates the most memorable moment on the album. The problem for me is that the majority of the rest of the album sounds amazingly similar to itself and it’s very difficult to distinguish most of the tracks from each other.

It’s not that Filth Pig is a bad album, it’s just lacks enough variation in it’s structure and Sound. The Highlights are the already mentioned title track, the Fall a piano driven track (originally recorded for the WELT Side project), Lava which manages to add some prime Killing Joke into the Sabbath stew and Brick Windows a track which sounds closer to the Pailhead project (a collaboration between Ministry and Ian MacKaye of Fugazi) which is dominated by more punk like guitar lines. Again out of some kind of perverse nature Ministry leave us with another deranged cover this time it’s Bob Dylan’s Lay, Lady, Lay , which is mildly amusing but no where near the genius of previous Jourgensen cover versions of Oliver Newton John’s Let’s get Physical and Rod Stewart’s Do you think I’m Sexy (Both covered as the Revolting Cocks).

Filth Pig to me, was a move by Ministry to distance themselves both from the bands mimicking them and also away from the fame they had gained with Psalm 69. It is not a bad album and had been released by any other band it would probably be counted as a classic. However fans of Ministry are aware that the potential of the band is so much more. The only people really smiling about this release are Ministry themselves. Knowing that they have achieved their aim of disenfranchising a large amount of the fan base they picked up with Psalm 69. It seems that Messieurs Jourgensen and Barker are interested in fame, and want to keep their underground status. With the release of Filth Pig they achieved this aim.

Ministry - Twitch

Label: Sire
Catologue Number: 25309-11
Format: CD
Date: 1986
Style: Techno-Industrial / Synthpop
Rating: 6/10
Reviewer: Sidney James

Before Ministry turned into the cyber metal gods they are to day, Ministry had been a rather dubious Electro-pop band more Howard Jones than Depeche Mode. The album that was released under that incarnation With Sympathy is an embarrassing stain that Al Jourgensen has tried to remove through out his musical career. Twitch was Al’s first attempt to distance him from the new romantic image he has so successfully portrayed on his debut release.

The over-riding influence on Twitch is the sound of the then new and underground European Electronic Body Music scene, and in particular Front 242. A band that Al had began to collaborate with on the Revolting Cocks side project and whose vocalist Richard 23 appears on the track Angel. The sound that dominates Twitch is that of hard electronic bass lines and slamming drums topped with snarling vocals and a bucket load of samples.

The album kicks off in storming fashion with Just Like You, an vague attack on the American political system combined with a the heavy electronic undertow and sampled voices joining in with Al’s Chorus of disapproval. The musical theme is continued with We Believe. Both tracks can be seen as forming the template for the industrial dance sound that would become the staple of the Wax Trax label (Part ran by Al Jourgensen) and would later form the basis for Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine.

The next four tracks All Day, Angel and Over the Shoulder and My Possession have more in common with Ministry’s With Sympathy era, but with a harder edge. Angel still rates as one of the best Electro pop songs written in the Eighties. A almost dream like quality is produced and Richard 23’s vocals float beautifully around the song.

The rest of the album returns to the hard electronic dance sound of Just Like you. The real stand out track being isle of Man, a rant against mankind’s ecological damage to the world. It’s a shame this track only appears on the CD version of the album because it was several years until I actually got to hear how good it was. The strangest track on the album is Crash and Burn, which is the closest Ministry, has come to producing an Electro noise piece. The whole track sounds like the equipment was pushed to the point of collapse and it probably was.

Twitch is not the best place to start your Ministry collection, but it does act as an interesting relic of how Ministry developed from being an awful New Romantic synthpop band to become one of the heaviest and influential industrial rock bands in contemporary music.

Ministry - Psalm 69

Label: Warners
Catologue Number: 7599-26727-2
Format: CD
Date: 1992
Style: Industrial Metal / Alternative Rock
Rating: 8/10
Reviewer: Sidney James

Psalm 69 (The way to succeed and the way to suck eggs) or the symbols album was the most commercially successful album that Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker have released in their careers. It was also the album alongside Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral that saw the crossover of industrial music into the rock mainstream. You could also blame it the same way you can blame The Beatles for Oasis, for a succession of sub standard metal bands suddenly using samplers and dance beats in their music.

Whilst the classic Ministry album The Land of Rape and Honey had been a truly innovative and groundbreaking combination of industrial electronica and thrash metal, Psalm 69 sees Ministry increasing the guitar quota and dropping the electronics into the background. Although not as initially as thrilling as Land of was Psalm 69 stills packs a killer punch and contains some classic Ministry songs.

It kicks off with the incredible N.W.O in which a slamming rhythm meets thrashing guitars and the sampled voice of George Bush promoting the dubious virtues of an American dominated World Order. This is probably the most explicitly political Ministry have been. The fury continues with the Junkie bashing Just One Fix, which seems rather ironic considering Mr Jourgensen’s infamous heroin habit.

The next two tracks Hero and TV II sees Ministry produce some of the fastest songs they have produced, but don’t work as well as the earlier tracks. Things however greatly improve with the infamous Jesus Built my Hotrod featuring Texan madman and leader singer of the Butthole Surfers Gibby Haynes. The track is not only amazingly humorous but also sees Ministry creating a track that idea sounds like a speeding hotrod careering out of control.

After your breath has been taken away by Jesus built my Hotrod, Ministry slow down the tempo, with the tracks Scarecrow and Psalm 69, both sounding like cybernetic versions of Black Sabbath. Both tracks show that Ministry don’t require speed to leave a crushing impression on the listener. A theme they would take further on the next two albums Filth Pig and Dark side of the Spoon.

The remaining two tracks are two instrumental pieces which lack the direction of the rest of the album, and seem strangely out of place. The final track ends the album with an explosion of white noise and leaves the listener numbed and confused.

Psalm 69 is a good album, but not Ministry’s best, but is acts as a good introduction to the whole industrial rock genre. It is also one of those albums that have a major influence on a wide range of bands working in the alternative rock and metal genres. From Smashing Pumpkins (Who have acknowledged it‘s influence) to the more obvious influence on bands like Fear Factory, White Zombie and Static-X.