… this month
I was probably more excited for this album’s release than any other album I’ve awaited before. It all came together at that point of that year.
I actually found the DVD audio version a couple months back. Al’s final masterpiece. Crazy that this year also marks Paul being gone for a whole decade.
Think Paul left early 2004, but “decided” to leave in '03.
What a great, furious, crazed album. I got that DVDA a few years back too, there’s not much to the so-called documentary, but i was glad to have it. I saw them In Amsterdam and Dublin on that tour, i’d never seen them before and was blown away. Al got his cock out in amsterdam and told someone who was annoying him in the crowd to come up and suck it. He walked off halfway through Jesus Built My Hotrod, but came back a while later and continued the song. Met Mrs Jay selling t-shirts, and she was actually really dead on with us, she couldn’t believe we’d come from Belfast to Amsterdam to see the band. I think at both shows, if i remember right, during the checks before they came on, the sound dude pressed the keys that start The Fall and i was so fucking excited that i was finally gonna hear it. Of course they didn’t play it, the bastards!
Excellent album…Saw them on that tour also,in Pompmano Beach…they were in amazing form and it was the best set list they ever did,imo…good times…
yea their last good album… shit, its been 10 years already? maaan…
while this album had nothing new to offer - it had basically everything they did before but gathered in one album - its very good and imo stands several heads above bush trilogy and whatever else came after it, despite being such a fucking brickwall of sound and enormous amount of high frequency overload (even more than filthpig or dark side). to me it was good end to trilogy of pig-darkside-animos.
Excellent album…Saw them on that tour also,in Pompmano Beach…they were in amazing form and it was the best set list they ever did,imo…good times…
Absolutley agreed, amazing set list, never to be equalled on later tours, as much as i enjoyed them.
Probably my least favorite Ministry album (except remix albums or the covers one).
My least favorite of the “Paul” albums. But it does have Leper and Lockbox to its credit.
Probably my least favorite Ministry album (except remix albums or the covers one).
I’m not a fan either, although “Light Pours Out of Me” and “Shove” are both monster tracks.
I am sorry that I missed this tour, though (the only one I didn’t catch since 1991). I’ve seen the setlists and they were incredible. After this tour it would be basically the same set list for the rest of their career (4 “classics” and an hour of Bushology).
Probably agree with the least favorite of the later paul albums
“Shove” monster track.
Shove is FUCKING awesome! that track alone makes the album purchase worth it!
Late,
grmpysmrf
One of my favorites. I’m not crazy about the lyrics of the title track, but apart from that (and not putting bagpipes in Unsung from the frickin’ get-go), this album’s solid from to back. The mastering’s screechy, tinny, and painful, but this album’s supposed to be an ugly, loud racket, so I’m okay with it.
Best tracks are definitely Impossible, Stolen, and Leper.
Some of the tracks are rough gems - but it doesn’t really feel like a Ministry album proper to me. If someone told me it was an album of unreleased tracks lifted from the vaults I’d believe it.
leper is one of my favorite ministry songs. it’s a decent album. i can’t stand listening to half the tracks on my headphones (due to the high pitched, thinny, screechy music) so that’s pretty embarrassing.
I think Leper is one of the greatest album closers of all time. I’ve said it before but you all are some lucky motherfuckers that got to see that tour. Did anyone catch a show where they played We Believe?
Also a favorite here. Its a good mix of punk and metal. Very ‘clashy’ and always loved Al’s vocals on this, almost like what he did on DSOTS, only better.
This tour was the first of two times I saw them live. And it was INFINITELY better than the second time.
To whoever said that most of it sounds like outtakes, it’s because it mostly was.
“Piss” (Crucial Bitch)
“Lockbox” (Dead Practice)
“Broken” (Trailer Smell)
“Shove” (Shove In My Head)
…were all made around 1999-2001, Rey’s drums are credited on this record but he never played them. Max did. The band quit after the 1999 tour except for Hypo/Luxa of course.
Oddly enough, “Dead Practice” and “What About Us” for A.I. were recorded quite a ways apart from each other. My guess is that the former was what they were going to put in the film, but Warner probably rattled the cage and wanted a single for that greatest fits comp so the latter was the result…“What About Us” definitely sounds rushed for radio.
“Unsung” might have been an older track, too, since Rey is credited on it. The lyrics are based around the topic of war, so for sure the words were new. I do know that “Animosity” was probably the first song completed for it, since the rest of the tracks were registered a week or so after that in the BMI database. I think the group was getting their bearings, and probably were hoping for Adam Grossman to round out the guitar on the record/tour but he turned them down.
I was 16 when I got this record, and it was exciting because I had become initiated as a fan with the “What About Us” single, and it was a new record from my new favorite band.
The only albums I had up to that point were ‘Greatest Fits’, ‘Land of Rape and Honey’, and ‘In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up’ and I wanted to hear more.
I remember upon first listen thinking this is confusing but some of the songs instantly grabbed me (“Shove” in particular).
I have a very soft spot for this record as I said because it was the first new record as a fan. I heard this before I would go on to fill in the gaps in my collection and hear the “classics” ‘Mind’ and ‘Psalm 69’, along with the weirder stuff like ‘Filth Pig’ and ‘DSOTS’.
I agree it is a bit b-side sounding. I know from talking to Max Brody on MySpace that many of the songs were demos from ‘Dark Side of the Spoon’. And “The Light Pours Out of Me” was an old cover they’d been doing back in the day…
Still I think it’s a very strong album. And it has a great PostPunk element that would never really be found again in Ministry… The worst thing about it is undoubtedly the mix. It is by far the tinniest, trebly-ist, most painful Ministry record. I too cannot bare it on headphones, which sucks because I love it. The mixing is awful though. When “Piss” comes on it’s like a sledgehammer to the ears.
i wonder if paul & al would agree about the shitty sound. this record would sound SO much better if they mixed it properly. it’s sad, really.
remaster?