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Ministry
Animositisomina
Ministry is not exactly metal I suppose, more like industrial I guess, but I felt that the release of this historic CD deserved some attention. Ministry's last studio album, "The Dark Side of the Spoon" pretty much sucked. Couldn't hold a candle to the spectacular "Psalm 69."
But now Al and the gang are back with a CD that is worthy of mention. At first listen it is rather reminiscent of the aforementioned "Psalm 69." It's pretty damn heavy. Maybe they are trying to reclaim past glory by copying the style from what I'm betting is their best selling album, or maybe they just kick some serious ass. It's not for me to say I suppose. I just like what I hear.
The sound on this CD so far is very LARGE. Sounds like it is fighting for space in the audio spectrum. The drums sound like a Greek god hammering steel at his forge. And Al's voice is the furious voice of Zeus himself streaming down to us from Mount Olympus.
Things change course a little bit with "Broken" and "The Light Pours Out of Me". They aren't quite as loud and aggressive. "The Light Pours Out of Me" is almost tame compared to earlier songs on the disc. But that doesn't make it any less cool, it's great. It just shows that Ministry are not a one trick pony.
"Shove" continues to depart from the earlier heaviness of the CD, but is rather interesting. The vocals are the cleanest and clearest I've probably ever heard from Ministry. Spoke too soon, it gets heavier. Pretty cool. Very drum and bass oriented. I retract my earlier "Psalm 69" comparison, this is definitely a step forward for the band.
The panning at the beginning of "Impossible" is driving me crazy. It's just back and forth, full left, full right, full left, full right. ARGH!
Two of the last three tracks were only so-so. "Impossible" and "Stolen" just sort of seemed like filler to me. The last track, "Leper", I'm not quite sure what to make of yet. It is the longest track on the CD clocking in at just over 9 minutes. At 6 and a half minutes there has yet to be any vocals, so I'm thinking this might turn out to be an instrumental. I guess it is ok as far as instrumentals go, but it's nothing amazing.
Ok, so my first impression was wrong. This CD isn't as fabulous as I initially thought. It does have some good stuff on there, but really kinda bombs out on the last three tracks. Still light years better than "The Dark Side of the Spoon."
