Filth Pig

Spin (2/96, pp.84-85) - 6 - Reasonably Good - "...discrete blasts of techno grunge--mean, pointed, and ass-kicking enough to make even the staunchest Megadeth fan boogie....Al Jourgensen turns down the TV and offers slower, druggier soundtracks and lurid existentialism..." Melody Maker (1/27/96, p.34) - "...smackhead nihilism...delivered in the familiar Dalek-gargling-on-a-glass-splinter-Slush-Puppy vocals....A record to admire rather than love. Unless you're into pain." Musician (4/96, p.92) - "...what makes this Ministry album seem heavier than metal is this lumbering, animal menace of the rhythm section....Ministry adds a measure of humanity to the music without ever compromising its in-your-face aggression..." New York Times (Publisher) (2/25/96, Sec.2, p.34) - "...On FILTH PIG, Ministry turns into a ponderous heavy-metal band on the order of Slayer, playing dense, sinister, bottom-heavy songs..." NME (Magazine) (1/27/96, p.43) - 7 (out of 10) - "...toe-shatteringly fierce industrial stompings and grinding riffs of the teeth-gritting variety. Oh, and they don't mind shoving the `harm' into `harmonica' now and again....resembles Led Zeppelin's `Kashmir' being battered about in a blender..."

Each new Ministry album is an exercise in stress-testing the listener, generating a sonic bombardment that grinds through the outer protective layers and churns up whatever lies beneath. The lyrics in Ministry songs often don't matter -- what matters is the tone and shape of the music, the precise way in which the instrument sounds and samples are twisted, straightened, kinked, crushed, broken, reassembled, or done unto; whether drum sounds have this kind of gated reverb or that kind of overdriven chorusing; and just what they mean to impart with this tempo or that. Filth Pig is 54 minutes of slow-churn sandpaper attitude, a record that includes a cover of Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" that is one half friendly homage and one half power-tool demolition derby. This is Ministry, though, a race through dark places, driven by the razorbass. ~ Steven McDonald