Industrial metal pioneers. One of the most innovative and creative bands from the 90s and early 2000s. This is how I would sum up, in a few words, Ministry and its mastermind, Al Jourgensen.

Although a genius songwriter, a jack-of-all-trades in terms of instrumental usage (and a master of none, as he told us), Al Jourgensen left a deep and lasting impression upon the realm of metal and not only. Aside from his demented, marxist political views and the sheer stupidity which is exemplified in the lyrics, one cannot deny that his music is stellar and brilliantly crafted.

Here is a small list of this band's albums and some small thoughts.

Created by:

ManiacBlasphemer | 27.06.2017

	1.	Ministry - ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ An absolute classic within industrial metal. This album was not only a commercial success, but Al's best effort up until then. Catchyness is the element that drives this album, with the first 4 tracks sticking out the most while the second part is slightly more complex, with tracks such as "Scarecrow" requiring more plays to sink in. 5/5
	2.	Ministry - Houses Of The Molé By this time Al ceased innovation and slightly lowered the creativity level. This record is thrash influenced more than any other record he did in the past. However, who can hate good, fast heavy thrash records? Nobody sane. The lyrics are awful, I give you that, but the tracks are just terrific. "No "W", "Warp City", "Worm" and "World" stick out the most, the rest being average to good. Notice that all tracks have a "W" in them? This album also marks Al's moronically called Bush trilogy. 5/5
	3.	Ministry - Filth Pig Metal fans, like any other type of musical fans, tend to like bands that stick to a formula and never evolve. When Al decided to go more progressive and go for a more varied, innovative sound and songwriting, fans got pissed and quickly ditched him. This album is completely underrated, which is amazing because it has almost no fillers. Originality always tended to put off people, particularly media journalists who are scooping only fads and trends. "Reload", the title track and "Lay Lady Lay" are the highlights while "Brick Windows" is solid. The rest have their moments with 1 exception, "Useless", which is indeed useless. 5/5
	4.	Ministry - The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste From this album things really start to pick up. This is where the industrial sound really started to take shape and this is when Al's trademark sound and songwriting style started to become creative and influential. The A side is the highlight and "So What" from the B side is what you should be looking for. The rest is rather average. 4/5
	5.	Ministry - Dark Side Of The Spoon Ministry's probably most hated record, if we exclude the debut and sophomore one. Although in the case of the debut/sophomore I can somehow understand the adversity, against this one I can't. Or rather I can. Al continued the progressive line and went for a completely different sound and songwriting style with this one. The mood is darker, the guitars are in the background, the songwriting tends to be more experimental. The albums starts with a rather bad track, but gems like "Vex and Siolence", "Bad Blood", "Whip and Chain" or "Eureka" make up for it. 4/5
	6.	Ministry - Rio Grande Blood The second most straightforward thrash record Ministry recorded. Although it does have some incredibly good tracks like "Fear Is Big Business" , "Khyber Pass", "Lies" and "Senor Peligro" the rest of the tracks tend to be more on the filler side, in contrast with the previous record which did not really have fillers on its less than better tracks, but rather scattered good moments. 3.5/5
	7.	Ministry - Animositisomina A rather commendable although a forgotten work done by Ministry. This album came 4 years after the commercial unsuccessful The Dark Side of the Spoon which prompted Al's former big label to drop the band in 2001. Al returned to the early 90s industrial sound with this album, producing great tracks such as "Impossible", "Animosity" and "Shove". "Leper" and "Unsung" are strong too. 3/5
	8.	Ministry - Relapse Al returned after announcing the first disbandment with this record 5 years later, continuing with the thrash influenced industrial sound that he has been shoving since 2004. The result is slightly disappointing, although an improvement compared to the previous album. The opener, the title track and "FreeFall" are the highlights. 3/5
	9.	Ministry - From Beer To Eternity Mike Scaccia's sudden death prompted Al to make another album in his memory, using his last guitar recordings. The style is the same, thrash industrial, although, same like with the previous album, 2-3 good tracks and the rest are skipable. "Punch in the Face" and "Fairly Unbalanced" stick out with "Change of Luck" having some good moments. Fans of slow to medium paced thrash surely do not enjoy this album. Slightly underrated. 3/5
	10.	Ministry - The Land Of Rape And Honey You know why I don't believe the bullshit that Al was forced by the record label to record in a certain style, disregarding his own musical ideas? Because of this. Although an improvement compared to the sophomore, this album finds Al rather clueless regarding his musical direction. This may have been innovative when it was released, but the fact remains that time was not kind with this record. The tracks are stale and monotonous with only the opener somehow sticking out. 2.5/5
	11.	Ministry - The Last Sucker This album ends the moronically labeled Bush trilogy. In a way, I am happy that Al decided to come back with another album as this one, as its name suggests, sucks. Not entirely, but for the most part it does. The embarrassment peaks with "End of Days" when Al literally raps his shit off on this track while also wasting time with a lengthy Bush sample. "Death and Destruction" and the Doors cover is what I take, you take the rest. 2/5
	12.	Ministry - AmeriKKKant This is Al's lowest point. Before this album, the weakest album he released ever since TLoRaH was The Last Sucker. The main reason this album sucks is because it lacks heavyness. Most of the tracks are way too soft for Ministry's standard. Al, one way or another, during his experimental or standard thrash phases, he played extreme metal. With the exception of one track, not the case here. The past 2-3 albums weren't particularly great either, but you could still find 1 terrific track sand 2-4 decent ones. This one barely has 1 above average song, Twilight Zone. However, this album does indeed get some undeserved hate particularly because of its primitive whiny left-wing message. Al has been doing this since the very beginning, but times have changed the metal audience too. Unfortunately for Al. 2/5
	13.	Ministry - With Sympathy In terms of pop music, this is the only record that can be classified as pop within Ministry's discography. Al goes on record saying that the record company forced him to write songs in the new wave style (which was commercially viable back then) while adopting a British accent (!) Overall, this is not a bad new wave album, but it has no highlights and it tends to be stale and too samey. In the end this is just another new wave album in a sea of average new wave albums. 2/5
	14.	Ministry - Twitch So, Al quits Arista, proclaims that he was forced to sell out and not allowed to follow his own musical views and when he finally gains freedom to do whatever he wants he releases this turd. No highlights, not even a good moment can be found on this record. Utterly boring electronic sound coupled with Al whispering instead of singing. Al, everybody can whisper on an entire record. Al was not forced to sell out. He simply did not yet have a musical direction. Thus, he easily got convinced by Arista to record a new wave album and to make some quick bucks to pay his drug dealer. 1/5