Ministry

highly influential industrial metal act, with the core members being al jourgenson and paul barker. during the early 80’s, it was just al, and he was ripping off bands like depeche mode. around 1986, though, he decided to go for a darker synth style. then barker joined and the rest as they say is history. very active during the ’80s and early ’90s, but then they took a break. recently barker has left the band, but jourgenson backed by a new band, is making music more frequently again. their lyrics often attack politicians and religious fanatics.
ministry’s best alb-ms are the mind is a terrible thing to taste, filth pig, and psalm 69.
a synth pop group from the early 80’s that ended up going in a completely different direction, becoming one of the greatest industrial metal bands ever by the late 80’s and early 90’s. trent reznor from nine inch nails would later rip them off when he created the broken alb-m.
an obscure 80’s synthpop group that became a mainstream 2000’s thrash metal band.
ministry are the very definition of a band that has gone through major evolution.
since there seems to be no f-cking decent definition of ministry that is clear and unbiased in just its description (seriously guys?) i’m going to add one.

ministry was an influential post-industrial band, formed in 1981 as a synthpop group, releasing a record t-tled “with sympathy” that was received mostly well. in the mid 80’s, the group transitioned. synthpop to ebm. they released an alb-m called “twitch”, which again was well received. then came their most experimental and lauded work: “the land of rape and honey”, which paved the way for ministry to be a prolific post-industrial band. before recording this, al jourgensen dropped his faux british accent. the mind is a terrible thing to taste is often considered to be a fantastic example of an industrial metal style ministry. however, this was short lived: in the early 90’s after a falling out with some kid named trent reznor (who i’m only bringing up because you guys can’t seem not to) who al had befriended and worked with, ministry released an alb-m that begun to alienate the audience, called “psalm 69”. its style was different, bearing a thrash metal tinge with industrial metal framework. it was in this same year, 1992, that nine inch nails’ “broken” released. regardless of your feelings about either work, they were not only the records to bring industrial metal/rock into the spotlight, but they opened doors, and a lot of you f-ckers probably wouldn’t know about any of this music before this point.
people have their opinions, but commercially and critically the consensus is that said kid bested al at his own game, eventually dethroning al for a short time as the poster boy for industrial metal/rock, until trent and his band moved in a different direction.

at the same time, ministry did as well. the record “filth pig” effectively split the fanbase in half, and it was at this point that the ministry that established all its greatness was gone. from that point on, any elements related to industrial music were expunged from the records ministry released, and they became largely a thrash metal band – though would release older, previously unreleased material from the golden ages from time to time.

explaining ministry is one thing, sharing an opinion is another. i’m going to acknowledge mine as subjective: the work out out for a long time has been horrible. “relapse” is probably the worst since the turn of the century and the remaking of older songs is cringe inducing. people may not feel the same way but it is generally regarded, even if someone considers post-80’s ministry to be good, that the band’s quality of music had dropped drastically. brilliant stuff was made in the 80’s, though. it’s such a significant body of work to so many modern groups of post-industrial music, and even if old uncle al’s gone crazy, a permanent mark of that will not soon be forgotten.

ministry in the 80’s – their greatest hits.

ministry in the 00’s – their greatest sh-ts.
correction: reznor did not rip off al jourgensen’s style. in fact, reznor and al jourgensen paired up to cover a black sabbath track (supernaut) in 1994.
the group ”1000 h-m- djs” was formed by members of nin and ministry. the name was created because of a comment by one of the band members made in previous years.

“only a 1000 h-m- djs would play this record.”

a full explanation can be found at www.ministry.nu