Ministry popularized industrial-metal by injecting large doses of punky, over-the-top aggression and roaring heavy metal guitar riffs that helped their music find favor with metal and alternative audiences outside of industrial's cult fan base. That's not to say Ministry had a commercial or generally accessible sound: they were unremittingly intense, abrasive, pounding, and repetitive, and not always guitar-oriented (samples, synthesizers, and tape effects were a primary focus just as often as guitars and distorted vocals). However, both live and in the studio, they achieved a huge, crushing sound that put most of their contemporaries in aggressive musical genres to shame; plus, founder and frontman Al Jourgensen gave the group a greater aura of style and theater than other industrial bands, who seemed rather faceless when compared with Jourgensen's leather-clad cowboy/biker look and the edgy shock tactics of such videos as N.W.O., Jesus Built My Hotrod and Just One Fix. After 1992's Psalm 69, which represented the peak of their popularity, Ministry's recorded output dwindled, partially because of myriad side projects and partially due to heroin abuse within the band, but continued to resurface through the rest of the decade. Ministry was formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1981 by Alain Jourgensen (born Oct. 8, 1958, Havana, Cuba); he had moved to the U.S. with his mother while very young and lived in a succes
1 | No "W" | Houses of the Molé |
2 | Nature Of Love (Cruelty Mix B) | Twelve Inch Singles |
3 | Bad Blood | The Matrix: Music From The Motion Picture |
4 | Hizbollah | The Land of Rape and Honey |
5 | All Day | Twelve Inch Singles |
6 | The Nature Of Love | Twelve Inch Singles |
7 | Worm | Houses of the Molé |
8 | Stigmata | The Land of Rape and Honey |
9 | No W | Need For Speed Underground 2 |
10 | Halloween (Remix) | Twelve Inch Singles |
11 | The Missing | The Land of Rape and Honey |
12 | Track 23 (Unlisted) | Houses of the Molé |
13 | Deity | In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up |
14 | Destruction | The Land of Rape and Honey |
15 | The Missing | In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up |
16 | Warp City | Houses of the Molé |
17 | So What | In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up |
18 | Thieves | In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up |
19 | WTV | Houses of the Molé |
20 | Track 69 (Unlisted) | Houses of the Molé |