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Ministry: Psalm 69 - the way to succeed and the way to suck eggs
17/04/09 || Smalley
The unfortunately now-defunct Ministry has been a favorite of mine for a while now, and this was the biggest success of their lengthy career, both in terms of sales, and, I would argue, among their fanbase, a very, very difficult thing to do. But, was all this love really deserved? Well… yes and no. “Psalm 69” is a good album, and furthered the evolution of Ministry as a band, but at the same time, has a plainer sound to it than the rest of their work. Even “The land of rape and honey”, where Ministry was uncomfortably caught between their burgeoning industrial tendencies and 80’s Electronic music, manages to be a more interesting experience than the more straight-forwardly metal “Psalm”. Still, this is an enjoyable, satisfying album in its own right, and I do appreciate it, so I’ll be taking a little time now to explain why…
“N.W.O.” starts things off with a bang, with a main riff that’s effective through sheer repetitiveness (sounds weird, but it does work), Al Jourgenson’s distorted growl that delivers prime, post-Gulf War paranoia, low-fi, extremely drawn-out guitar soloing, as well as brilliant use of samples, particularly one of George H.W. Bush as he babbles about his “new world order” in that famously nasal tone. All of these factors and more combine to make “N.W.O.” the very cream of the “Psalm” crop, and cement it as a classic Ministry cut.
The rest of the record doesn’t quite live up to that high standard, but is still pretty consistent; the frenzied, static-y, run-on rant of a track “TV II”, the nonsensical, almost auctioneer-speed rambling on “Jesus built my hotrod” (provided by Gibby Haynes of The (teehee) Butthole Surfers), the gloomy industrial/doom metal hybrid “Scarecrow”, the chaotically catchy “Corrosion”, which always makes me want to reach for the glow sticks and start raving… there’s plenty of good stuff to be heard here.
Unfortunately, there are a few disappointments, such as “Just one fix” and “Hero”, which are both decent tracks, but also seem restrained and are noticeably less energetic than the rest of “Psalm”. They’re partly why I consider this one of Ministry’s less interesting albums, and also reveal another complaint I have with “Psalm”; the patterns that Ministry programmed into their drum machine here are sometimes just too simple, too repetitive, and too flat, even if they do generally fit the tempo of the music. Drumming’s important guys, why treat it like an afterthought? Factor in the slightly reduced creativity and atmosphere this album has compared to their previous two records (both of which used programmed drumming, but it wasn’t as noticeable there), and the downside of the drum machine’s lifeless perfection definitely makes its presence known on “Psalm 69”. I wonder if Ministry thought the very same thing, and if that’s why they decided to go with organic drumming for “Filth pig” (which is also a good album, though some would disagree with me), but I digress…
So those issues, plus the more straight-forward sound I mentioned earlier, are basically my only complaints with this album, relatively minor ones within the overall scheme. So what if “Psalm 69” ultimately falls short of the greatness it’s often described as having? It’s still a good album, I still enjoy it, and it managed to grow the band’s fanbase without getting Black Album-style commercial on us, so hats off to Ministry for that. I do prefer “The mind is a terrible thing to taste” the most out of any of their records, but Ministry virgins could do much worse than to start off with this one.
8.5 sexualized Biblical verses out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 1992
- Label: Sire/Warner Bros.
- Website: www.ministrymusic.org
- Ministry
- Alain Jourgensen: vocals, guitars, programming
- Paul Barker: bass, programming
- W. Rieflin: drums
- M. Scaccia: guitars
- M. Balch: keyboards, programming
- H. Beno: programming
- L. Svitek: guitars
- Tracklist
- 01. N.W.O.
- 02. Just One Fix
- 03. TV II
- 04. Hero
- 05. Jesus Built My Hotrod
- 06. Scarecrow
- 07. Psalm 69
- 08. Corrosion
- 09. Grace
