Additional information
Ministry: A. Jourgensen, P. Barker. On FILTH PIG, industrial progenitors Ministry eschew the layers of maxed-out programmings, high velocity BPMs and feral samples that dominated PSALMS 69, LAND OF RAPE AND HONEY and THE MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO TASTE. FILTH PIG opts for a still ferocious, but tighter, plodding, more death-metal sound, recorded in real time with a preponderance of guitar and bass. On this release, Al Jourgensen's satanic vocals ride atop a heavy, distorted and booming rhythm section evoking White Zombie or Black Sabbath, as songs like "Lava," "Filth Pig" and "Crumb" viscerallly inspire head banging. Credit them for pushing their own musical envelope with an interpretation of Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" featuring lap steel and strummy acoustic guitar (worth the price of admission alone just to hear Jourgensen belt out "I long to see you in the morning/I long to reach for you all night"). In the same vein, check out "The Fall," with its cascading piano line. A great album to piss your parents off with.
Reviews
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..."
