Ministry
Filth Pig

THE REVIEW

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.