Filth Pig

Performer: Ministry
Engineer: Z. Hukic; Brad Kopplin
Producer: Hermes Pan; Hypo Luxa; Al Jourgensen; Ministry
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Ministry: A. Jourgensen, P. Barker. Unknown Contributor Roles: E. Nevarez; Ralph Wash; Rey Washam; Stella Katsouda; Phil Barker; Bill Rieflin; Mike Scaccia; Louis Svitek. On FILTH PIG, industrial progenitors Ministry eschew the layers of maxed-out programmings, high velocity BPMs and feral samples that dominated PSALMS 69, LAND OF RAPE AND HONEY and THE MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO TASTE. FILTH PIG opts for a still ferocious, but tighter, plodding, more death-metal sound, recorded in real time with a preponderance of guitar and bass. On this release, Al Jourgensen's satanic vocals ride atop a heavy, distorted and booming rhythm section evoking White Zombie or Black Sabbath, as songs like "Lava," "Filth Pig" and "Crumb" viscerallly inspire head banging. Credit them for pushing their own musical envelope with an interpretation of Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" featuring lap steel and strummy acoustic guitar (worth the price of admission alone just to hear Jourgensen belt out "I long to see you in the morning/I long to reach for you all night"). In the same vein, check out "The Fall," with its cascading piano line. A great album to piss your parents off with.

Spin (2/96, pp.84-85) - 6 - Reasonably Good - "...discrete blasts of techno grunge--mean, pointed, and ass-kicking enough to make even the staunchest Megadeth fan boogie....Al Jourgensen turns down the TV and offers slower, druggier soundtracks and lurid existentialism..." Melody Maker (1/27/96, p.34) - "...smackhead nihilism...delivered in the familiar Dalek-gargling-on-a-glass-splinter-Slush-Puppy vocals....A record to admire rather than love. Unless you're into pain." Musician (4/96, p.92) - "...what makes this Ministry album seem heavier than metal is this lumbering, animal menace of the rhythm section....Ministry adds a measure of humanity to the music without ever compromising its in-your-face aggression..." New York Times (Publisher) (2/25/96, Sec.2, p.34) - "...On FILTH PIG, Ministry turns into a ponderous heavy-metal band on the order of Slayer, playing dense, sinister, bottom-heavy songs..." NME (Magazine) (1/27/96, p.43) - 7 (out of 10) - "...toe-shatteringly fierce industrial stompings and grinding riffs of the teeth-gritting variety. Oh, and they don't mind shoving the `harm' into `harmonica' now and again....resembles Led Zeppelin's `Kashmir' being battered about in a blender..."

Though Chicago's Ministry is known as the archetypal industrial rock band, they actually started out as a dour synth-funk outfit before founder Alain Jourgensen really ratcheted up the noise and the gloom on 1988's THE LAND OF RAPE & HONEY. In so doing, Ministry became the template for scores of industrial bands to come, combining roaring, metallic guitars, distorted, demonic vocals, and relentlessly pounding electronics. By the '90s, they were alt-rock icons, getting heavy play on MTV and appearing at the Lollapalooza festival. Even after Jourgensen's musical partner Bill Rieflin left in 1994, Ministry continued making dark, disturbing music for their legions of admirers.

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