I’m sure there wouldn’t be any formal celebration within the current Ministry camp lol, but today is the exact day Ministry’s first album With Sympathy was released in stores 30 years ago.
I just LOVE this album and am a really huge fan of it,and not afraid to tell people my love for it. I love everything Ministry has done up until Dark Side of the Spoon, but this album is the funnest to play for some reason personally. Plus it’s not all fluff like everyone thinks it is, it does have sort of a dark vibe that other New Wave bands didn’t really have back then.
I’d like to hear some stories about the first time you heard this. I first heard it back in '96 at a record store and my first impression was feeling shocked because I was so used to the Psalm 69 Ministry at that point.
I heard it first in 1994 when a buddy and I were driving back from Sacramento to So. CA for the holidays. I found the CD in his collection (I had heard OF it but hadn’t actually heard the album) and put it in the car’s player.
I thought it was hilarious. I couldn’t finish listening to it. The only song I really like on that album is “Revenge”.
after getting impressed by “in case” on video and then psalm, then mind, then lorah albums (in that order) ministry became one of my favorite bands, i think that was late '98 or early '99, maybe around time of “dark side of the spoon” release, hell, maybe even after, like 2000 or something?.. cant remember…
then after all that i heard “with sympathy” and actually saw that “revenge” music video. i thought both video and the album were hillarious, and at first i was listening it just for lols.
i was starting to dig in the twitch album shortly after that and i’ve heard halloween and cold life songs before i’ve heard “with sympathy” so i dont know why it was so funny to hear that particular album.
at the same time i was sort of surprised how does one go from that to songs like just one fix or scarecrow, you get the idea. then after awhile i got into “with sympathy” alot, and enjoyed all the '82-'84 bootlegs that surfaced on the internet tremendously, as well as 3 single mixes of “Work For Love” and re-recording/remix of “I wanted to tell her”, etc.
the 2012 rerelease of this album brought us “new” revenge remix which was fuckin’ awesome, of course. i just wish finally all the unreleased stuff from that era will surface out somehow… i mean, we all know they had enough songs for a follow up, which could be still synth-poppy (or w/e its called) but a bit darker.
anyway - in my personal ministry world, with sympathy is a legitimate ministry album and ranks higher than anything released by “ministry gang” since animositisomina.
EDIT: P.S.: By the way, anyone has that Revenge Remix in LOSSLESS format to share?
I’ve never heard the album, but I’ve heard “I’m Falling” which I like, and a few others as well. One of these days I’ll have to hear it in its entirety.
I don’t feel like Ministry really became Ministry until ‘Land of Rape and Honey’, but I do listen to ‘Twitch’ from time to time and I like their version of New Wave, a genre I’m not usually big on in general…
I stumbled across it in a record store in London (meaning the version I have is called “Work For Love” and has a different track order). I knew it existed but had never seen it before. I was pleasantly surprised with the songwriting.
I knew of Ministry’s heyday, but then the guy who owned the party house in my neighborhood told me Ministry were a total synth pop band at first. I took it with a grain of salt, but one day heard Effigy, or Revenge, and was pretty shocked. Very hilarious. I told a friend of mine and he didn’t believe me. Then one day this guy who was redesigning his house just happened to have With Sympathy with him. My friend borrowed it real quick to put it on his computer. He showed the dude redesigning his house what Ministry is known for and he didn’t really like it.
I didn’t see the video for Revenge for years, but today I own both the vinyl and cd, and the Work For Love single (but it’s in shitty condition). A friend of mine actually found the European release (aka Work For Love) for hella cheap.
I don’t think it was a bad album overall. Side 1 is awesome, but it gets bad after Here We Go. I’ve said it before, but if it had What Is The Reason, Love Change, and Never Asked For Nothing, then it would’ve been in the top 3. I probably would’ve put it behind Dark Side if it had those tracks, a close second for the best in other words. But Animosity and Twitch just had to be better.
Originally, I never even knew it existed. When I first got into Ministry, I was under the impression that LORAH was the first one. No one really mentioned or talked about the first two. Then one day, a friend of a friend who is/was a DJ mentioned a song called Revenge, which I had never heard of. I looked at him like he was crazy. About a year later, I finally came across it on itunes and bought it.
I remember walking home one day and I stopped by a shop to pick up some eggs. I love eggs. When I got home I spent a few minutes trying to decide whether I’d have them fried, scrambled, boiled or poached. I decided on scrambled, which went well with toast. The next morning I was in the mood for eggs again but I realised I used up all my eggs the day before, so I had to go back to the shop and buy more eggs. I heard With Sympathy a few months later but I’ll never forget the time I didn’t buy enough eggs in the one shop visit.
[reply]I remember walking home one day and I stopped by a shop to pick up some eggs. I love eggs. When I got home I spent a few minutes trying to decide whether I’d have them fried, scrambled, boiled or poached. I decided on scrambled, which went well with toast. The next morning I was in the mood for eggs again but I realised I used up all my eggs the day before, so I had to go back to the shop and buy more eggs. I heard With Sympathy a few months later but I’ll never forget the time I didn’t buy enough eggs in the one shop visit.
Was that back when people used to wear an onion on their belt?[/reply]
Something like that. Of course back in those days you couldn’t get white onions, because of the war. You could only get those big yellow ones
It was sometime in 1992 when I was in metal mode and had no idea about Ministry’s past. The album art was confusing, roses and lady fingers aren’t hardcore but I bought it anyway. Put it on and thought “What the fuck is this?” and returned it to my local Music Plus, probably for some Sepultura or something. I’ve since repurchased and appreciate it.
I heard it around 2000 or so. I first got into Ministry around 1996. I had previously heard Filth Pig, but wasn’t into it at the time. My friend had Psalm 69, Mind and LORAH, and I loved those albums.
Before the days of widespread Internet, I thought LORAH was the first album, but I heard about the other stuff while browsing the web in the late 90s. I got my first car in 2000 and won an online auction of about 20 tapes to play in my car. There was Frontline Assembly, Front 242, Pet Shop Boys, With Sympathy and many others.
I wasn’t shocked when I heard it, the song arrangements were similar to filth pig, but obviously more synthy with lighter subject matters. It really grew on me and became one of my favorites. Almost all of my friends were into Ministry back in the day, and most of them liked it when I played it for them.