The Bush Trilogy, opinions

Discussion
1

Heh, I guess I already know what most responses to this will be. I just wanted to throw in my 2c.

Now, this is not a completely informed post on my behalf, I don’t yet own any of the bush trilogy, I havn’t purchased anything ministry related post animositisomina. Mainly because hardly anywhere in Aus stocks ministry anymore. Well, the newer stuff. Oddly Rantology is stocked, but always overpriced because it’s an “Import”.

Anyway… I have heard at least 3-4 songs from each album (more from Houses). I really like what I have heard from house and RGB… not so much last sucker.

From house I have heard (from memory) NO W, World WKYJ, Warp City, and WTV… I enjoyed all of these, not the thrash-fest that it seems to be now, while still heavy, it’s not quite “I wanna be like slayer” territory yet. World and Warp city probably the Favs.
One exception would have to be WTV, I only listened to it once… pretty terrible! Shame considering I liked all the other TV Songs. Just the constant “DUHHN” when the channels are changing… too over the top IMO… maybe I need to listen again, maybe not [laugh]

RGB - have heard Lies, Great Satan Kyber Pass and Ass Clown. LIes is ok, it’s the standard “single” like No W. I really like great satan when it came out, nice and thrashy, however I haven’t listened for a while. Kyber pass I’m undecided on, seems interesting enough, but I’ve only heard the live version. Enjoyable enough, something there I don’t go 100% on though.
Despite what I have heard on the board, I really like Ass Clown. It’s the best track I have heard off RGB. Lol… I know it’s nothing innovative or new, it just gets stuck in my head, and I enjoy it. Heh, and hearing Jello go “ass clown!” every now and then makes me smile.

Now… last sucker… I have heard roadhouse blues… car crash or whatever it is… and last days umm… can’t remember the names specifically, they are probably way off. Roadhouse blues… cough bad move with that song. Seriousley, I know your all metal now al, but lay lady lay, excellent cover, roadhouse blues, try-hard “I’m so funny and metal” cover. I hope the rest of “cover-uP” isnt like this, don’t ruin Radar Love for me!!
I’ve only listened to the others once or twice each, nothing drawing me in to rush out and buy the album, just seemed pretty ordinary, which is a shame, because I’ve been defending ministry and their direction until now. I suppose I’ll wait until I listen a few more times to make complete judgement, as with the new Manson disc, I didn’t like it when I first heard it. I’m really digging it now. But then again Burton is on there… I found the same thing with FF… I really got into them, followed them until Digimortal, that went downhill, now it’s just the same “heavy” record again and again (although to be fair I havn’t heard the lastest FF disc, I’m being a bit presumptuous).

So there’s my brief views on the trilogy… anyone here who has heard them all in full, give a run down, any you like over others? THink they are all garbage? Love them all? Whatever…

Only other thing I wanted to comment on was remixes. Havn’t heard anything from RGD yet, but I love the Lies Jungle Mix! I know people on here thought it was crap, I think it’s better than the original by far!

2

al is not himself anymore, it seems. i don’t like anything from ministry since 2004. animositisomina was the song of a dying swan. or something.

well i like maybe one or two tracks from each album. cocked and loaded (as was cocktail mixxx) is crap, rio grande dub sucks and if there would be last sucker remix album (again with some dumb name) is going to suck in advance.

funny you don’t like wtv. among piss army crowd that track is considered to be amazing. go figure.

3

Suck suck suck everything sucks.

5

Not bad, just feels like I’m listening to Hero 30 times in a row. Face it, Ministry wasn’t going to be groundbreaking again. I can put all the good songs from the last 3 and make a real fun disc.

For everyone that said DSOTS was the last interesting thing Ministry has done said it was awful on this very board 8 years ago.

6

Hahaha, yeah I remember when I joined everyone was bagging DSOTS and Filth Pig and wanting Psalm 69 part II, and when it comes they all complain. Probably not the same members anymore, but anyway.

7

The weirder thing with Ministry fandom is the 2 extreme interweb camps. The piss army and prongs.

8

Speaking for myself, I never liked Dark Side, never wanted Psalm part 2, and really enjoyed Houses. RGB was good for 3 or 4 listens, and now I barely like any of it. TLS is a step up, but far from a great last album. I really hate that Ministry’s career ended with this ‘trilogy’, but what can ye do.

After Psalm came out, I really wanted to see Al experiment with the electronic side more, especially as synth and sampler technology improved in the 90’s. There’s a lot more to explore on that side, than plugging in a guitar and turning the amp up to 11. I do like the aggressive, guitar-driven stuff, but that instrument has become the ‘voice’ of Ministry now more than Al himself. It’s almost like his mission these days is just to see how hard, fast and loud he can play. The songwriting has seemingly become an afterthought. The speedy guitar solos are just annoying now. Mindless noodling, basically noisy filler in place of what could be something creative and different. The Mind album is no perfect masterpiece, but there is a lot of character and distinction in every one of those songs, something I can’t say about these past two records. How do you like your guitars, fast…or not so fast? I feel like I already know what the last RevCo album is going to sound like.

1002

9

Speaking for myself, I never liked Dark Side, never wanted Psalm part 2, and really enjoyed Houses. RGB was good for 3 or 4 listens, and now I barely like any of it. TLS is a step up, but far from a great last album. I really hate that Ministry’s career ended with this ‘trilogy’, but what can ye do.

What can you do?? Not much. Except voice your gut reactions to their recent output - regardless of the flaming you’ll receive for being negative.

And I don’t remember ANYONE EVER saying they wanted Psalm 69 pt2!

My biggest gripe was that the band (after DSOTS) slowly deteriorated in quality - musically and lyrically. Especially with this ‘trilogy’, everything that was once innovative, mysterious and exciting about this band went right out the window. Nowadays it’s just :

thrash thrash - sample sample - BUSH IS EVIL - thrash thrash - sample sample…

and so on.

After Psalm came out, I really wanted to see Al experiment with the electronic side more, especially as synth and sampler technology improved in the 90’s. There’s a lot more to explore on that side, than plugging in a guitar and turning the amp up to 11.

Yeah, especially when their are 10 trillion other bands playing what is essentially the same thing.
There’s just very little which sets them apart from countless other metal acts these days. I’d love to see them branch out - but I doubt it’s ever going to happen.

The speedy guitar solos are just annoying now. Mindless noodling, basically noisy filler in place of what could be something creative and different.

Yeah. It’s like ‘OK, how do we fill this gap. How about we try…oh stuff it just whack in a solo’. And they all sound the same.

The Mind album is no perfect masterpiece, but there is a lot of character and distinction in every one of those songs, something I can’t say about these past two records.

I miss the old production of the late eighties - all of the instruments were given room to breathe, especially those smooth, rolling PIL type basslines. Nowadays, every single eeency bit of space is taken up with Al yelling over thrash metal guitars.

There’s seems to be no real creative thought anymore. He seems to be flooding the market with as many tinny sounding crappy ‘metal’ releases as possible in order to get his record label off the ground and make a quick buck…

‘Err…um…well the kids dig the gnarly thrash sound…and um…everyone hates Bush, right?? And the bank account’s lookin’ a little low this month…better whacl out another one. Fuck experimenation and originality, I gots to get me a new pair o’ boots!!’

10

maybe al stopped being creative a long time ago.seems like he’s always delegated duties, in the studio, on tour and otherwise. maybe that’s his legacy(the ability to delegate and put the right mix of people together), and he’s done with it.
as far as mrs. jay #2, well let’s look at the websites for Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. very revealing.

11

just finished listening to TLS, disappointing, now RGB seems decent!

best tracks:
let’s go
no glory
die in a crash
end of days pt2

12

Just heard The Last Sucker tracks previewing on the band’s MySpace…

…oh dear, words fail me altogether. I was expecting something ordinary but …nothing could have prepared me for this.

It’s barely even C grade heavy metal.

End Of Days Pt II is WOEFUL!!!

This is hilarious!!! And The PissArmy wonder why we complain so much…!!!

13

To balance things out a little bit, I do enjoy listening to the trilogy. Houses is the most interesting musically album, with the post-punk aesthetic still existing alongside the thrash, whereas RGB is a fun, well performed thrash album. Last Sucker is slightly more industrial sounding on account of the programmed drums and I also still enjoy it.

I dont always need music to be innovative. Sometimes an album that kicks me in the head with appropriate finesse is just as good, depending largely on the mood Im in. Ministry’s trilogy is not innovative, not particularly relevant in todays music world but it does the job of making me feel like jumping around or headbanging and as a metal fan I can say that it does it pretty well.

Thats all there is to say really.

14

just finished listening to TLS, disappointing, now RGB seems decent!

best tracks:
let’s go
no glory
die in a crash
end of days pt2

This is waaaaayyyy better than RGB. RGB had some good tracks on there, but 3 out of 10 is just meh. TLS isn’t a great album either, but it seems to have a little more character than RGB. HOTM is the superior of the three though, and the more ministry-like of the three also. Not too sure what to say about ministry anymore, but it probably wouldn’t be too nice. And unlike the cliche “rabid chicken”, I can admit to what I like and not like. And gila, I would have no problem sitting in a room with al and telling him exactly what I think…sorry to sound like an instigator, but damn…you say one thing and automatically, she aims to turn her flock (piss army) against you. Hate that forum.

15

i don’t care about that um… “incident” or whatever. i wasn’t responding for a long time because i’m on vacation now.

anyway, yeah.

i have no problem with what she said because i’ll never be in the same room with al ever, because i’m in russia :slight_smile:

i didn’t want to start a pointless flame war there because it would be deleted anyways (like they delete all the negative and well positive) reviews of TLS and even deleted the three pics of that “supah dupah cool” cover hologram that i posted.

but regarding that song… al really fucked it up. :wink:

16

To balance things out a little bit, I do enjoy listening to the trilogy. Houses is the most interesting musically album, with the post-punk aesthetic still existing alongside the thrash

Agreed…for the most part it’s…OK.

whereas RGB is a fun, well performed thrash album.

Interesting.

Last Sucker is slightly more industrial sounding on account of the programmed drums and I also still enjoy it.

I dont always need music to be innovative. Sometimes an album that kicks me in the head with appropriate finesse is just as good, depending largely on the mood Im in. Ministry’s trilogy is not innovative, not particularly relevant in todays music world but it does the job of making me feel like jumping around or headbanging and as a metal fan I can say that it does it pretty well.

Thats all there is to say really.

Well, I stand by what I said - this new material is of a standard I never thought Ministry would sink to. However, you do make some valid points - I see where yr coming from. I’ll admit that a certain amount of ‘cheese’ is mostly pretty harmless. But Al seems to be taking all this so seriously - he seems utterly convinced of his own genius. Imagine trying to point out the obvious to him:

‘Al, yr churning out samey sounding thrash metal horse manure here. Fer God’s sake, even Static X would balk at releasing this crap. Why don’t you…’

BANG!!!

Hmmm…I dunno, dude. I wish I could be as flippant about it as you are. All I can really do is shut up, listen to the old stuff and not buy the new one.

Actually, I feel a whole lot better already…!

17

I’ve scoped out the Ministry myspace…
“Die in a Crash” is the only decent thing there.
As I suspected.