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Re: Ministry Set list Ghouldiggers Rio Grande Blood No W Señor Peligro LiesLiesLies 99 Percenters Watch Yourself Life Is Good Waiting Worthless Relapse The Last Sucker Khyber Pass / Double Tap Encore: Psalm 69 N.W.O. Just One Fix Thieves So What Encore 2: United Forces (Stormtroopers of Death cover)

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  • 5 years later...

I realise this is an old thread but it seemed pointless to start a duplicate Ministry discussion.

I was browsing YouTube and came across some old Al Jourgensen interviews from his cheesy synthpop era.  He has always been extremely critical of his first album With Sympathy, maintaining that the record company he was signed with at the time (Arista) forced him into it and he has more or less completely omitted it from his musical legacy.

Personally I don't believe he hated it at the time as much as he would have us believe.  His earliest singles like Cold Life were recorded before he even got signed, and while they were perhaps not quite as "poppy" sounding as the With Sympathy album itself, they show that he was at least that way musically inclined.  And then came Twitch, an album he recorded under the Sire label which he was granted much more creative control over - more aggressive sounding than his previous work but still not Ministry as we know it today.  I can believe that Arista took advantage of his young age/inexperience and fucked him around, but I can't help but feel that completely disowning his early work has always been a bit of an act to boost his credibility among his industrial/metal audiences, which seems a bit sad for a musician to do, especially considering for what it was, it wasn't all THAT bad.

What's your take on this?  As a big Ministry fan I've always been fascinated by their genre-confusion and perhaps one of the most radical transformations in the history of music.

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You know what, it's hard. For me, as a musician, if I'm trying to create my vision and when somebody else is taking that control from me to make me something that I'm not, it hurts a lot. Because it's not an easy process to make a song, record it, mix and master it and everything else, also giving a lot of time and money. If you're trying to do it professionally, you want it to be your way. At least on some level, and to be completely out of creative control and put in a position to make something that somebody else thinks it's good for you, it really hurts and pisses you off, especially if you are very personal with your music. You are trying to prove yourself that you have something unique and worth of listening and when you don't have that chance, rough experience.

 

The similar thing happened with "Believe in Nothing" from Paradise Lost. Greg Mackintosh thinks that that record doesn't really exist for him since they didn't have creative control over the music. The other expample is when NIN finished "Pretty Hate Machine", TVT wanted similar record again and Reznor was very pissed off about that because he did not want to repeat himself. Linkin Park had similar issues with record company when they were doing "Hybrid Theory". Not an easy thing to swallow.

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10 minutes ago, Kristiko said:

You know what, it's hard. For me, as a musician, if I'm trying to create my vision and when somebody else is taking that control from me to make me something that I'm not, it hurts a lot. Because it's not an easy process to make a song, record it, mix and master it and everything else, also giving a lot of time and money. If you're trying to do it professionally, you want it to be your way. At least on some level, and to be completely out of creative control and put in a position to make something that somebody else thinks it's good for you, it really hurts and pisses you off, especially if you are very personal with your music. You are trying to prove yourself that you have something unique and worth of listening and when you don't have that chance, rough experience.

 

The similar thing happened with "Believe in Nothing" from Paradise Lost. Greg Mackintosh thinks that that record doesn't really exist for him since they didn't have creative control over the music. The other expample is when NIN finished "Pretty Hate Machine", TVT wanted similar record again and Reznor was very pissed off about that because he did not want to repeat himself. Linkin Park had similar issues with record company when they were doing "Hybrid Theory". Not an easy thing to swallow.

Indeed.  I think that's just the reality of most record companies unfortunately.  Tom Warrior from Celtic Frost/Triptykon is another one on that list who has been very vocal about his hatred of big labels for this reason.

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  • 1 year later...

Confession time: I have to state that I never bothered with Ministry until I heard AmeriKKKant last year...and let me tell you...I had a lot of catching up to do. In saying that AmeriKKKant was my "Album of the Year" last year even though I've heard its one of the weaker albums. And for the record I don't care about the "politics" in the music I listen to...I'm Australian...meaning I'm too lazy to care about anything really.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Boy, i actually envy you since you have all the good stuff still ahead of you because you certainly started with the worst. I´ve listened to Ministry for quite some years but the last few albums were a big turn off plus Al Jourgensen increasingly idiotic left wing behaviour. The last album i really enjoyed was "From Beer to Eternity" since it was the last album with Mike Scaccia on guitar and i liked how the brought back some the electronic elements on that one. 

But AmeriKKKant was definitely the nail in the coffin for me personally. I´d rather remember them for their classic albums instead of supporting the drivel Jourgensen puts out nowadays. I really wish i could listen to "Land of Rape and Honey" or "Rio Grande Blood`` with fresh ears once again. Those albums left such a huge impression on me back then. Curious to see which album will turn out to be your favorite. I know "Filth Pig" is one of their most hated albums but i think it´s a brilliant sludge album, just not what you expect from Ministry after "Psalm 69".

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I never loved this band, but The Land Of Rape And Honey is a fantastic album when I want to hear that kind of angry, repetitive stuff. Highly recommended. It's the only Ministry album that I ever find myself reaching for. Psalm 69 and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste were the big ones when I was growing up, but they both put me off. I remember thinking Filth Pig was pretty cool but I haven't put it on in at least ten years. Don't think I've ever heard Rio Grande Blood, I'll try to remember to put it on the next time I'm in a Ministry mood.

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  • 7 months later...

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