YMMV / Ministry

• Anvilicious:
  • Politics has been in Ministry's music since the late 80s, but even by the standards of the band that made the Bush trilogy, their post-trilogy albums don't even bother with subtlety, with some songs ("99 Percenters", "Antifa", "Just Stop Oil") openly endorsing specific groups and political movements.
  • Within the trilogy itself, the title track from Rio Grande Blood stands out. It is written in Bush's perspective and uses manipulated samples to portray him as a Card-Carrying Villain. This is especially noticeable as a later song, the title track from The Last Sucker, is also written in Bush's perspective and shows Al starting to pity Bush as a person despite remaining critical of his administration.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Filth Pig and Dark Side of the Spoon are generally not held in high regard, although they both (Filth Pig more so) have gained their fair share of fans over the years.
• Broken Base: Did they start to suck post-Psalm 69? Was it the Bush-era albums that did them in? Or have the changes been for the better? Considering that the band has changed so much over their history, you'll expect to see this trope in spades within their fanbase.
  • Al's older synthpop material has been getting more and more fans as of late (including the stuff before With Sympathy), much to Al's annoyance. Specially when said fans seem to have an extreme hatred for his later Industrial Metal shift.
  • Al himself has said that he makes better music under Republican presidents. This may have been a joke, but judging from the receptions Ministry's albums have gotten on various sites (Rate Your Music, Sputnik Music, Metal Archives, etc.), this actually seems to be what the fans think, too. Animositisomina, the anti-Bush trilogy, and albums recorded before 1993 (with the exception of With Sympathy) almost without fail have much better receptions than anything Al released during Democratic administrations (the big exceptions being the poorly-received Trump-era AmeriKKKant and the well-received Biden-era Moral Hygiene).
• Crazy Is Cool: "Jesus Built My Hotrod"., big time.
• Epic Riff: Lots of them, including "Stigmata", "Burning Inside", "N.W.O.", "Just One Fix", "Jesus Built My Hotrod", and "TV II".
• Fandom Rivalry: Sometimes pops up between Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. These fans forget that Jourgensen's friends with Trent Reznor and both have occasionally worked together.
  • Also applies to Big Black and Ministry, mostly due to Steve Albini's outspoken hatred of all things electronic and accusations of aping Big Black's style on The Land of Rape and Honey.
• Fan Nickname: "Uncle Al" for Al Jourgensen.
• Ho Yay:
  • Al's relationship with long-time collaborator, Paul Barker:
    • In interviews, Al frequently compared them to Kirk and Spock. And when asked about why Barker left the band in 2003, Al said:
    As for Paul and me, it is the same thing as to when you are in a marriage for twenty years and come to a point when you have run out of new sexual positions. It was no fun any more.
    • Al and Paul particularly sound Like an Old Married Couple in Chris Connelly's memoir of his time in Ministry and related projects, with Al as the Bumbling Dad and Paul as his Closer to Earth spouse.
    • Fix: The Ministry Movie features such scenes as Al feeding Paul grapes and the two of them waltzing on a tour bus. They end their waltz with Al pulling Paul into a kiss.
    • It's rumored that Al's second wife might have been a factor in their parting. If nothing else, the timing is certainly suspect.
    • Al spends most of his autobiography claiming to have always hated Paul, but his then-wife disagrees saying that, "... Al loved Paul, y’know? When Al loves someone, he really loves them. So when Al says he hates Paul, he hates Paul now. But he didn’t hate him back then. They were bandmates and Al loved him," and that "Paul stuck a knife in Al's heart." Oooh, boy.
  • Al's relationship with Nivek Ogre, during the late 80s and early 90s. Photos like◊ these◊ say it all.
  • The "Just One Fix" music video. It's intercut with shots of what looks like some guy jerking off and ends with Al and the other members enticing two teenage boys to get into their car.
  • "So What" from The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste. Rather inevitable when it's about brawling and anal sex, though.
    Anal fuck-fest, thrill olympics/ Savage scourge supply and sanctify.
  • Al has admitted to performing oral sex on his bandmates; discussed here, though detailed in his book.
• Less Disturbing in Context: The title of The Land of Rape and Honey, explained under Shout-Out on the main page.
• Older Than They Think: Politics in Ministry's music did not begin with Houses of the Molé, but has been present as early as 1986's Twitch, albeit in smaller doses and usually not as topical ^note (e.g. "All Day" is about exploited workers, "Isle Of Man" has a Green Aesop). Their most topical pre-2000s song was "N.W.O", which features samples of George H. W. Bush, though the lyrics by themselves don't make it obvious.
• Signature Song: "Jesus Built My Hotrod" and/or "N.W.O.". "Everyday is Halloween" for their Synth-Pop era.
• So Okay, It's Average: The consensus for Relapse and From Beer to Eternity seems to be that they're either this or another Audience-Alienating Era, though despite that, there are certainly quite a few fans who like them both fine, too.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Chris Connelly's new band Cocksure to the Revolting Cocks.
  • Lard could be seen as this to Pailhead — industrial-punk groups consisting of the then-current lineup of Ministry plus a well-known Hardcore Punk singer (Ian McKaye for Pailhead, Jello Biafra for Lard).
    • Lard themselves haven't officially had a release since 2000's 70's Rock Must Die - but since then, Jello has made guest appearances on albums by Ministry and various other Al projects, so those particular tracks might be considered unofficial Lard songs. Revolting Cocks' "Viagra Culture" in particular sounds about as much like Lard as it does Revco.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Filth Pig is considered to be the start of the band's Audience-Alienating Era due to the initial negative response to the slower and heavier sound from people wanting more of what the band with Psalm 69.
  • Hardcore industrial fans tend to react this way toward the post-Paul Barker albums being more metal than industrial. It doesn't help that the change in musical direction coincided with Ministry's lyrics starting to focus on more topical political commentary under Al's creative control.
• Tough Act to Follow: The band's Sire Records albums (Twitch through Psalm 69) are regarded as their classic period, with Psalm 69 being their only platinum album. Despite Filth Pig being their highest charting album in the United States and most other countries, all of their post-Psalm 69 albums are more contested to varying degrees, and none of them have been anywhere near as commercially successful.
• Vindicated by History:
  • Filth Pig was a heavily polarizing record upon its release. Nowadays, it is considered to be one of Ministry's finest albums with fans and critics praising the sludge metal elements and its focus on overall heaviness. Probably one of the rare cases of a good Ministry album that was recorded under a Democratic administration^note in this case, Bill Clinton.
  • With Sympathy is perhaps the most extreme example of this. Al's hatred for the album borders on legendary, and due the market being flooded with similar projects during the 80s, it was ignored by a ton of people upon its release. Yet due to the synthpop revival movement in the 2010s (and the proliferation of Al's early synth pop demos before his Industrial Metal shift) the album is nowadays considered a hidden gem of retro synthpop with critis praising Al's lyrical work. It has also gained a considerable and very loyal fanbase, and even cover bands that sing nothing but songs from said album.
• Win Back the Crowd: Ministry's 2021 album Moral Hygiene received a markedly better response from critics and fans than its predecessor Amerikkkant, and was generally characterized as a return to their 90's era industrial metal sound as opposed to the thrash metal leanings of much of their other output in the 2000's.

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