A "filthy pig", that's how Alain Jourgensen was described by an English MP. "Filthy warmongering conservative pigs, you are," would likely have been Al’s diplomatic response between a shot and a sniff, and "Filth Pig" was indeed the title of Ministry's album released in 1996.
In 1992, Ministry had released the unpronounceable "??F????T", better known as "Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs". With strong songs like "N.W.O.", "Jesus Built My Hotrod", and "Just One Fix", the album was a success and provided them good public visibility, establishing them as pioneers of that evolution of industrial rock predictably labeled industrial metal. However, this marked the end of the most significant part of Ministry's discography: this became evident four years later with the release of the successor to "Psalm 69". In "Filth Pig", indeed, the typical strengths and weaknesses of the second part of their career are already evident. It might be due to an excess (or lack?) of hard drugs, a certain relaxation on their laurels, or the election of a Democrat to the White House, but Jourgensen seems to start running short on those brilliant ideas we liked so much. In their absence, our favorite AmericanoNorcubano (also because there are no others), applies a formula that will become mannerism, and metal takes over industrial. A formula applied with class and craftsmanship indeed, but like any mannerism, it lacks true quality leaps, doesn't strike for innovation, and in the long run, doesn't thrill. However, it is not a complete failure, and Jourgensen, alongside the good Paul Barker, offers us an album poorly received by critics and the public but still not to be thrown away.
"Filth Pig" has a cover that in retrospect reminds us of a Borat movie poster directed by George Romero and starring Eminem; the content (also in retrospect) reminds us more or less of subsequent Ministry albums, which will continue along the same lines essentially by just making the sound heavier. It consists of ten quite similar songs: especially in the first part of the album, we encounter powerful industrial metal featuring very strong guitars, a prominent bass as there should be more often in the metal scene, and a scream not yet taken to excess. The hysterical opener "Reload" is one of the best songs of the lot, the harmonica in "Filth Pig" sounds like a mocking parody of country, "Dead Guy" is quite devastating and "Game Show" and "The Fall" end this series of unsettling visions of our present (such is the group's intent at least). This formula is always very homogeneous and the quality is never excellent: boredom looms towards the end of the album. It is at this point that our favorite anti-conservative heroin addict surprises us: "Lay, Lady, Lay", a cover of the good Bob Dylan. The song is performed in pure Ministry style, retaining all the aforementioned sound characteristics but giving us something not yet heard on the album: it probably won't appeal to a purist fan of the old Bob, but within the album it appears as one of the best songs: even if the compositional vein is no longer what it once was, it is still possible to deliver an emotional and convincing interpretation. Obviously, this might also be interpreted conversely to mean that the group really stands out only with covers. The almost cheerful final song, "Brick Windows", is probably the best original composition on the album. The sufficiency is still reached but not exceeded: there remains a strong lack of truly winning ideas or simply leading singles. Therefore, it’s an album I feel comfortable recommending only to easy-going metalheads or those, like myself, interested in forming an opinion on all the main works of the group. Fans of proper industrial won't be satisfied.
Ministry would continue to express their metal side until their breakup in 2007, with works often enjoyable but never reaching the heights of innovation and expressiveness of the more industrial albums from the second half of the 80s. The fame of being the quintessential industrial rock band now belongs to Nine Inch Nails, and the metal scene has decidedly separated, having seen for years the White Zombie in its most fun and chaotic incarnation, that of bands like Rammstein and Marilyn Manson. The darker and malevolent side of the genre was instead taken up by bands like "Fear Factory" and "Strapping Young Lad", the side into which Ministry introduced us a decade earlier with "The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste" without needing to resort to the same instrumental extremisms.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Reload (02:25)
(Three... two... one... roll five.)
You got something to say you better jump in my face
Got something to hide you're scared as shit and should die
Aim
Aim
Reload
You say it's time to collect I'll kick your ass and eject
Time to settle the score, throw your ass through the door
Aim
Aim
Reload
You wanna lie like a dog you're gonna wake up with fleas
Inside a world full of shit you're still an asshole to me
Aim
Aim
Reload
02 Filth Pig (06:19)
I start out (???) things and people start (???)
Been a thousand days and it's getting overexposed
Then someone asks, "How do you sleep at night?"
With the borrowed dreams from a broken past
You keep runnin' away don't matter how fast or long you always wind up there
Another thousand pileups in the ugly name (of morality/a poor addict who's)
Fucking ugly, some creepy guy keeps asking
"How the fuck do you sleep at night?"
With a frozen dream and a borrowed hope that died
Filth pig, filth pig
I sleep with both eyes open
Filth pig, filth pig
I keep chasing this tail but the tail gets bigger go figure
A thousand more stories keep the fires and flames alive
So how the fuck do I dream at night?
With the memories of a borrowed death, the guilty tide
Filth pig, filth pig
He sleeps with both eyes open
Filth pig, filth pig
He sleeps all right because he's a
Filth pig
03 Lava (06:30)
Hot lava
Big Monkey flow
Chokin' on a color
Floating down like a rain ("Oh yeah")
Hot lava
Cool down
Big travel every town
Roll it over with a ball and chain
Hot lava
On the always
Make ready to burn
What the hell is in your
Lost and your found
Got lotta those time
Some owner lost
He wants nothin' but the kick underground
"(Be Healed, Be healed!)"
Hot lava, lava
"(Be Healed Be healed!)"
Big kicka mule
Dipped in hot cotton
Make water like candy
And a fever like mine
Big boiler
Make rotten grey matter
not spoiled like the child who pops them two at a time
"Be healed!"
Hot lava, lava
"Be Healed, Be Healed!"
Hot lava
Hot lava
04 Crumbs (04:14)
Yeah
You're down there shooting blanks from broken guns
You fire all day long and still not hit a fucking one
Don't wanna know what some sick [sniper(?)] fuck considers fun
Prob'ly throw a party, served melted ice cream over crumbs
Just crumbs
Just crumbs
You prob'ly lick more ass than anyone
I guess you like the taste of shit on your tongue
No matter what you order the same thing will come
A plate of refried shit just covered in crumbs
Just crumbs
Just crumbs
"I never had a life. I don't even know what life is."
"Have you? Have you? Have you?"
"I have what you'd call a life."
"Everday of my life."
"I have what you'd call a life."
05 Useless (05:55)
Tell me what I want what I need for all my [sweating(?)]
Show me what I get what I earned and why
Keep me all yours, braindead and useless
Take my cues when the crippled many
Must sit with you, corrupt, without pity
The slogan [ream on(?)] greed, lust and power
Feeble, missighted, without honor
The failing marriage slowly grinding into nothing
A bleeding union only left with trying offspring
Suffer, this simple nagging wound
This childish riddle, this dumb cartoon
Keep me all yours, braindead and useless
Keep me all yours, braindead and useless
These fucking [dense(?)], form English hands
Reaching for my throat, to coddle, and throttle, remove all hope
Try your best to choke the very meaning from my life
A callous whore, a cheating wife
Keep me all yours, braindead and useless
(Useless, fucking useless)
Keep me all yours, braindead and useless
(Useless, fucking useless)
06 Dead Guy (05:15)
Another day, another knife in the back
It's happened so many times, I stopped tryin to keep track
You're stuck stickin' it in, you're stuck stickin' it in
Take it up to the hilt to cover up your own fuckin' guilt
And when the shit goes down you're out of places to hide
No time to ask could the motherfucker really survive
Get a load of this fuck, he's the dead guy
It's just a natural ? you never fuckin' possessed
You lost control of my life you want control of the rest
You're always stickin' it in, you're always stickin' it in
You stuck it so many times you .... .... ....
But when the shit comes down you're out of places to hide
Time to ask if you're alive or just pretend that you died
Just remember this fuck, I'm the dead guy
I'm the dead guy
Dead guy
07 Game Show (07:45)
Cuttin' pictures from a magazine
A paper smile but not from you to me
Another statue in a horoscope
A breakfast alone
Another compromising ?
Another game show
The game show
The game show
I pass the time away before I sleep
I have your picture sitting next to me
I taped your picture in a book
Don't bother reading I just take a look
Don't have to turn the page before I know
So full of answers I don't need to know
I like to take control / Our life was just a joke
I like the game show
The game show
The game show
Don't have to turn the page before I know
You ask me questions I already know
The time has finally come to let you know
I like to take control / Our life was just a joke
I like the game show
The game show
The game show
08 The Fall (04:54)
Take this invitation
Bishops Queen to Pawn
All of us were taken
All that was is gone
Of this information
Shames us one and all
Where's my compensation?
Watching others fall
Welcome to the fall
Everything is useless
Nothing works at all
Nothing ever matters
Welcome to the fall
Welcome to the fall
Welcome to the fall
Welcome to the fall
09 Lay Lady Lay (05:44)
Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
Stay while the night is still ahead
Stay lady stay
Heaven's dust fills our head
Whatever colors have you in your mind
I show them all to you and you see them shine
Stay lady stay
Stay with your man a while
Till the break of day
Then you're gonna see him smile
His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean
And you're the best thing he's ever seen
Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing over you
Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
We're gonna build the whole night ahead
I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you all night
Lay lady lay
10 Brick Windows (05:23)
Been bangin' my head against the window
Just trying to see the world outside
Some people say it doesn't matter
Some people take you for a ride
I am covered in blood and broken glass
It seems the window likes to fight
Some people say the world's on fire
Some people say the world's on ice
Some people say the world's on ice
Sweet all alone in alienation
Brick windows
I am sticking my face right through the glass
Just trying to see if the world's alive
Some people will say the window's broken
Some people will say it's all right
Some people will say it's all right
Keep bangin' my head against the wall (wall..)
Just trying to keep the past alive
Some people who make the windows shatter
Some people who make it airtight
Some people who make it airtight
Sweet all alone in alienation
Sweet all alone in alienation
Brick windows
Brick windows
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