The tinny programmed drums don’t sound terrible if you’re playing these nu-Ministry albums LOUD. This complaint reminds me of how critical people are over drum engineering on metal records, a classic example being “…Justice”, yet most fans consider it a favorite because the songwriting is great. In the morass of other lamebrain elements that make up a modern Ministry song, I generally find the drums aren’t the first thing that detracts from the experience. So what is it that separates the drum programming on “Roadhouse Blues” from “The Land of Rape and Honey”?
There’s no dimension to it! It’s astounding to me that a band celebrated for being industrial-rock forefathers and coming up with some of the memorable rhythms of the genre could fill their newer albums with the amateur drum sounds we hate so much.
I originally fell in love with Ministry hearing the propulsion of “Burning Inside”, “Breathe” and “Stigmata”. It’s a testament to the power of Rieflin/Barker and probably Al at the time for coming up with percussive bits so powerful. The monolithic stomp of “The Land of Rape and Honey”. Simplistic but one of the most effective rhythms i’ve heard in industrial. The drum parts, while not sophisticated, are a large part of what makes those songs succeed. This, coupled with the songs actually being good. Why is there nothing even comparable to the impact on everything Houses-present?
My guess would be because the band is totally different.
It’s come out in interviews that the other band members
contributed (if not entirely wrote) a lot of the band’s most
celebrated material.
How many studio albums did they do with real drumming? Using programmed drums in the studio and live drums on the tours is pretty standard in industrial rock- Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, etc. all do it.
How many studio albums did they do with real drumming? Using programmed drums in the studio and live drums on the tours is pretty standard in industrial rock- Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, etc. all do it.
Most of them? Rieflin played live drums on the classic records AND did programming. I don’t know that Washem and Baker and Brody did any programming, but I don’t have the credits in front of me from their albums.
The difference between the recent Ministry albums and records by those other bands you mentioned is that on the Ministry albums the drums are programmed to sound like a standard rock kit. Those other industrial bands (and Ministry, when using programmed percussion on earlier records) were going for a kind of machine sound that you don’t get from standard live percussion.
…The difference between the recent Ministry albums and records by those other bands you mentioned is that on the Ministry albums the drums are programmed to sound like a standard rock kit. Those other industrial bands (and Ministry, when using programmed percussion on earlier records) were going for a kind of machine sound that you don’t get from standard live percussion.
Doesn’t “sampling” have a lot to do with it? A lot of synth / industrial bands in the 80s defined their sound sampling all sorts of odd noises, running them through processors, and creating unique drum loops out of it. It was pioneering at the time, because not everyone had access to the $25k+ Fairlight and Synclaviers programmable synths that were only available in the recording studios. It’s probably less innovative today, because everything is readily available, for example, through Garage Band or other tools.
Most of them? Rieflin played live drums on the classic records AND did programming. I don’t know that Washem and Baker and Brody did any programming, but I don’t have the credits in front of me from their albums.
Washam is credited with “electronics” on DSOTS though that could mean any number of things. The drumming/percussion is all over the map on that album. “Supermanic Soul” and “Step” for example use real kits, though the former in a spliced up manner while “Nursing Home” has snares so gigantic sounding it could be programmed but has a spontaneity that’s difficult to get right with programming. Gives the album a really diverse feel, for sure.
My impression is that during most of the “Barker” period, ‘LORAH’ — ‘Animositisomina’, the majority of stuff is real drums, even if it’s so precise as to sound like drum machine.
(minus obvious exceptions like “Hizbollah” and “Destruction”…)
After ‘Houses of the Mole’ seems to be where they went into this lame programming territory with MIDI stuff meant to sound like real drumming, right?
Vocals, guitars and keyboards don’t seems to suffer much from ProTools, but drums and bass do.
The older stuff was likely tracked on tape, the newer stuff on ProTools or something similar. Just a guess.
You’d think they’d do something about that, though.
The kick and snare are so freaking tinny; what happened to the old fat sounding snare from the Psalm-LORAH days? I reckon that sounded even better than the live drums
I don’t mind drum machines and so on… I just don’t like the drum machine he’s been spamming us with. It sounds like someone tapping on a desk…not drums.
What’s the consensus on the Animositisomina drum sound then? I kinda like how gratingly loud each snare hits - like a heavily gated small explosion each time. My ears must be broken.
the guitars add a bit to it too.