The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste

Performer: Ministry
Producer: Hypo Luxa; Hermes Pan
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Ministry: Alain Jourgensen (vocals, guitars, programming); Paul Barker (bass, programming). Engineers: Keith Auerbach, David Ogilvie, Jeff Newell. For its second major-label album (following THE LAND OF RAPE AND HONEY), Ministry combined elements of industrial, punk rock, heavy metal, and hard-beat techno. In doing so, the band forged the mold copied by countless other American bands--from Nine Inch Nails to Marilyn Manson. MIND opens with the one-two punch of "Thieves" and "Burning Inside." The first features a whip-fast chorus, punctuated by samples of the drill-like sound of an automatically rewinding camera, that sets off the obsessive anger of the verses. In the second, vocalist Al Jourgensen's slightly phased vocals cut across razor-sharp bursts of guitar and a massive drum sound. Both songs are fast, aggressive, and quite brilliant. "Cannibal Song" and "So What" sound like super-heavy outtakes from Public Image Limited's METAL BOX / SECOND EDITION. "Test" almost falls into the trap of white boys playing at rap but is saved by its crunching, hypnotic guitar line and screeching feedback. The record's masterstroke is "Breathe." The pummeling, double-tracked percussion leads Jourgensen's commanding vocal delivery as the song spirals on and on, the fade-out suggesting that the song could have gone on forever. If only Ministry's children sounded as good as this. An American classic.

Q (12/92, p.149) - 3 Stars - Good - "..intense and challenging dance music.."

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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