MINISTRY - Twitch / The Land Of Rape And Honey (Deluxe Vinyl Editions)
November 11, 2024, a week ago
(Rhino)
There are few rock bands that you can point to as almost single-handedly helping trailblaze and popularize a certain subgenre. But Ministry – and in particular, their founder/leader, Al Jourgensen – is one such instance, when it comes to the industrial genre. Starting out as a run-of-the-mill electro-dance band, Ministry eventually began merging electronics with samples, an eventually, metal guitar riffs. Which, up until that point, such a combination was virtually unheard of.
And two albums that are often pointed to as Ministry's turning point, 1986's Twitch and 1988's The Land Of Rape And Honey, have now been reissued on limited edition vinyl by the fine folks at Rhino Records.
Admittedly, Twitch doesn't include much metal within its grooves, but it was certainly a building block for what was soon to come (all that needed to be added were the metallic guitar riffs), while The Land Of Rape And Honey finally delivered this merger, as evidenced by the classic tune “Stigmata.”
And thanks to these two albums, the stage was then set for what many feel were Ministry's two best (and fully realized/focused) albums, 1989's The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste and 1992's Psalm 69.
