They were avant-garde before we knew what to do with the word… They're
renown as musical innovators was established long before
Electronic music and Industrialized techniques became commonplace… they
were out there… far out there on innumerable levels and mere mention of
the name will evoke many different thoughts, ideas, concepts… and what a
perfect name, Ministry, a housing for all unholy -- a mainstream blockage
that rendered useless the simplistic concept of Rock, Pop and Heavy
Metal. They were all of these things and they were yet something unknown,
mysterious but never thoughtless… And many from back in the day, say
some twenty years before, may yet be scratching their head at the early
MTV fave that was "Revenge," a Brit-Pop extreme from an album far
removed, eons and again from anything we've known from this band,
Ministry.
"Greatest Fits" says it all, but not nearly enough -- but as far
as the bands' "hits" collection, necessary, integral and vital for all
who've embraced a technological vision to move forward. Ministry's
heavy-edged, techno-laced style of Industrial angst grew to feverish
heights at around the time "The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste" first
poisoned the airwaves back in '89. At a time when music was crying for an
inevitable revolution, they were going to give it… in fact they had been
doing so right along, but it wasn't until then that people were ready to
embrace Ministry as something more than an underground phenomena. A
few years later, with the release of "Keanho" or something thereabout,
saw the band rise to near mythic proportions. With the seething
free-for-all collaboration with the Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes for
their Hard Radio hit "Jesus Built My Hotrod," they never looked back,
burning rubber like a motherfucker, Hell-bent on death or its humanistic
equivalent.
Ministry made a lot of noise, here, there, and in more ways
than one, they had grand machinations attached to their music -- the art
of noise for all the world and "Greatest Fits" captures the best moments
of another band that may never be fully appreciated till well after
their time.
I still can't come to grips with the fact that "Burning Inside" from the
"Mind" release didn't get on here -- that's more than just a mere
oversight -- but they managed to throw in just about anything and
everything else that could possibly be termed "integral" to the band's
continuing legacy… "Lay Lady Lay," the sole exception ("Dead Guy," "Game
Show…") a numbing cover of a lousy Bob Dylan tune that they obviously
had fun with, but never sounded good to begin with -- this preceded by
"Reload," both going back to their 1996 "Filth Pig" follow up to the
mega-successful "Keanho" thing that to this day and forever after has
its place in history.
"Filth Pig" was more the return to their "Twitch"
and "Land of Rape and Honey" days, less built on Speed-Metal warfare,
and lent more to the technological complexities and spiritual wanderings
of the past.
A trio of newer material closes things out in odd yet
traditionally Ministral-like fashion before a bruising and blurry cover
of the Sabs' "Supernaut." What can you really say about a "Greatest
Hits" collection other than most of what should be on there is there…
would've been cool though to see 'em throw on an "Effigy" or "I Wanted
To Tell Her" just for kicks considering their knack for going against
expectations.
