The Land Of Rape & Honey - 25 years on

Discussion
23

The Land of Rape and Honey. Epochal. One of those albums that deserves every bit of adulation directed its way and should be in the same discussion file marked "what more can be said?.

My main memory is it being the second Ministry I heard (first being Mind) in the late 90s, spending many hours pouring over it on my discman on long neighborhood walks. This was in an era of 30 second Amazon samples & fruitfully scouring .MP3s on AudioGalaxy on limited bandwidth and not always having the $10 to throw down on a used CD. I played this thing like I was determined to figure out its secrets, its allure, its companion stature to my beloved Mind CD. There wasn’t anything as immediately gratifying as the assault of the highlights from that album. I expected more guitars. The cold barren sounds of this album slightly turned me off. At 14 it was my first real exposure to the minimalist darkness of this era and I have this album to thank for steering me towards an appreciation of the less-is-better aesthetic of the best industrial. Something I didn’t always accept when discovering new music and listening first to the busy production quality (KMFDM, Rammstein and Manson were favorites during this time).

One of its endearing features is the triptych-like sequencing. The most aggressive and vocal based as first act is just dynamite. Al’s restless delivery on Stigmata is iconic to my ears. The Missing/Deity is for my $ the best songs of that style Ministry ever did, with lyrics that empower every single beat. The second instrumental part – from Golden Dawn through the end of Hizbollah in my opinion is why Honey has left the indelible mark it has on fans. Take it or leave them, these songs are unique in the Ministry canon and give this album tons of ominous character. Plenty more iconic moments to be found with the start of the title song & the histrionics throughout YKWYA and Flashback. Sampling is A+ too, never becoming too much the song’s focal point and in many cases improving the songs caliber of intensity (the aforementioned Flashback).

Indulgent, I know. Still prideful additions to my growing Ministry vinyl collection.

24

Yeah. I need to throw this on tonight. One of those days.

Frigggin’ rekkid’s older than I am. Blows my mind.

25

I fucking love the Stigmata (Remix) from the 12". Even with how overplayed that song is I still really like it. It never gets old for me and has what I think is Ministry’s best video to go with it.

26

I fucking love the Stigmata (Remix) from the 12". Even with how overplayed that song is I still really like it. It never gets old for me and has what I think is Ministry’s best video to go with it.

Fuck yes! Don’t forget about Tonight We Murder.

27

Tonight We Murder.

LOVE THIS SONG.

28

Agreed on Tonight We Murder, what a fucking song.

29

I love the artwork for the single too.

30

The Land of Rape and Honey. Epochal. One of those albums that deserves every bit of adulation directed its way and should be in the same discussion file marked "what more can be said?.

Sums it up beautifully.

My main memory is it being the second Ministry I heard (first being Mind) in the late 90s, spending many hours pouring over it on my discman on long neighborhood walks.

I did the same thing. I spent many hours in my earlier years, with Rape And Honey blasting on my headphones - while walking empty streets at night in my old neighbourhood.

I think my first exposure to the album was hearing Flashback at around midnight on some indie college radio station while on a long drive home from an evening of playing pool.

Some time later I got into some bad trouble with the law and faced doing some time. Almost did. Rape And Honey got me through what was otherwise a dark chapter in my life.

31

[reply]I fucking love the Stigmata (Remix) from the 12". Even with how overplayed that song is I still really like it. It never gets old for me and has what I think is Ministry’s best video to go with it.

Fuck yes! Don’t forget about Tonight We Murder.[/reply]

How the fuck could I ?!?!? That song seals the deal. Goddamn, that was some quality shit they put out.

32

Great album, well, mostly. On some of their albums there’s tracks i just don’t like. Abortive is a prime example, i really hate that track. I think it might be the first Ministry studio album i ever heard. I heard ICYDFLSU first, then looked for the studio versions of the tracks in my friend’s Ministry albums. The opening three tracks are some of the best songs i’ve ever heard.

WHAT!?!!?!?!!?!? Aboritve is a pretty sick track. Love the NASA samples and synth line. It’s also a good track to end with. After all, your brain was just battered by the wall of noise and chaos of the two previous traacks before it, I Prefer, Flashback, it lets you breathe and reflect upon what you just heard and the ass kicking you just took.

33

Also has anyone heard this version of Stigmata from the video game Rock Band 2? It sounds exactly like the update mix off Rantology but the drumming is different. Anyway love this version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2WQwCXSw-g

34

Also has anyone heard this version of Stigmata from the video game Rock Band 2? It sounds exactly like the update mix off Rantology but the drumming is different. Anyway love this version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2WQwCXSw-g

It’s version from Everyday is Halloween Greatest Tricks I think.

Does anyone know what samples they used on live version of Golden Dawn?

35

Best album. I remember the first time seeing what the front cover REALLY was. At a friend’s house, and the album is lying halfway across the room…then i saw the head and went HO-LY-SHIT! My friend went, “what?!” i said “Look!”. Took him a few miniutes longer…heh heh.

The first song i heard was “Flashback”. I saw the video in a club and thought “Al has lost his mind…”

36

Best album. I remember the first time seeing what the front cover REALLY was. At a friend’s house, and the album is lying halfway across the room…then i saw the head and went HO-LY-SHIT! My friend went, “what?!” i said “Look!”. Took him a few minutes longer…heh heh.

I actually only noticed what the front cover was fairly recently, after having first seen the picture almost 20 years ago. At that time, i had taken acid and realised the inside picture was of bodies - i was pretty chocked at that - but the head on the front cover was, for some reason, just not obvious to me at all.

37

My fav memory from this album was seeing the tour. It was the first leg of TLORAH tour and they were playing smaller venues. I saw them at JHU Shriver Hall. Imagine seeing them play in your high school auditorium with 200-300 people there. That’s exactly what it was like. A DJ opened the show and was throwing out records like frisbees. I caught one and the spinning sliced into my hand between my thumb and index finger. It was a 1,000 Homo DJ’s 12" that I already has and I gave it to my brother. They opened up with Where You at Now? and then went into We Believe. Very memorable show.

38

Getting back more into this one lately. I really love the song ‘Flashback’. One of the most honest, pissed off songs ever recorded.

I really love his singing and the guitar riff on ‘Stigmata’ too.

39

I’m glad someone else mentioned liking some tracks from this better live. It might be blashpemy, but I think the live version of “Stigmata” from ICYDFLSU is far and away the best version of that track, and not just because it’s longer. The guitar is nice and full being live and not wimpy samples, & Al’s extended rant during the speed breakdown at the end just caps it off perfectly.

-D-

40

the live version of “Stigmata” from ICYDFLSU is far and away the best version of that track

FACT.

41

As far as Land getting a remaster, virtually every “remaster” simply means turning up every knob to maximum and the recording ends up being a brick walled mess. No thanks. The original was perfect as is.

Then by all means turn up every knob. Twitch and Rape would really benefit from just a little bass, those albums sound so flat, its ridiculous. They need a remaster.

I love what KMFDM did with their re-releases, added bonus tracks, booklets expanded etc.

42

Twitch and Rape would really benefit from just a little bass, those albums sound so flat, its ridiculous. They need a remaster.

you have the EQ. those albums sound that way because thats how the electronic stuff sounded (drum samples, synth bass, etc), i mean look and Big Sexy Land, the sounds are atrocious :slight_smile:

Then by all means turn up every knob.

louder is not better, by turning every knob would mean most definately heavy limiting which will result in loss of dynamics, added digital distortion and actually making everything louder but the low end.

added bonus tracks, booklets expanded etc.

yeah sure that would be great for any ministry album, considering al stated (~15 years ago before turning into wannabe redneck) that he had “wall full of tapes” of stuff that was not released. we got some crumbs on early trax, but judging from the new rerecorded version of same old madness, he probably indeed has some stuff that was not released. like fucking extended version of step, etc.

unfortunately re-releases probably not gonna happen because he doesn’t have any rights to sire/warner stuff he did. even if they would happen, knowing the current al, he would probably insert some lame gw bush and that annoying crowd noise samples into every other song, making them “improved” or whatever (a la rantology) and booklets would be changed to stuff like “i did everything, other guys you might have heard of were just leeches”.

in my opinion the only albums that should be remastered (properly) are filth pig, dark side and animositiblablabla, but with a bit of remixing - to remedy too much of high frequencies, and make them more dynamic, it would really benefit them.

on a side note… which version of album do you prefer tracklist wise, LP or CD? missing “hizbollah” and “i prefer” tracks seems ‘not right’ to me because CD version is the one i’m used to.