Filth Pig

by

Ministry

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If i have ever seen an album being criminally underrated and overlooked not so much by the professional critics but mostly by Ministry's very own fan base it has got to be this absolutely stunning masterpiece called "Filth Pig".

Having come after the album known widely as "Psalm 69" which was considered to be Ministry's peak and a definitive album of the 90s, "Filth Pig" was misunderstood on a vast scale exactly because the fans simply expected yet another "Psalm 69" or an album that sounded like it, and instead got something entirely different. The thing was, and is, that "Filth Pig" was not only a tremendous leap in creativity for Ministry that totally outdid "Psalm 69", but also a massive leap in contemporary music as a whole.

Does this all sound a bit over the top, you think? Well, the "problem" with 'Filth Pig' was that its brilliance demanded very experienced listeners to appreciate what it was, and beyond that it demanded listeners able to listen with an open mind. In the world defined as the "rock scene" where any sing-a-long good lil riff will do, and where lyrics associated with scaringly low IQs, that album was basically ahead of its time and ahead of its target group alltogether.

"Filth Pig" is a tremendous soundscape, unbelievably multilayered and yet as emotional as any album you could ever hope for. And then some more.

This is by a light year, Ministry's finest moment. Jourgensen sounds like he's singing from inside a war-zone with a voice towering high over the heart-thumping beats and the the genius guitar drives by Baker who also proves on this record that he's easily one of the best rock composers to be found.

But as mentioned, what makes this album so eeringly effective, is that, while it's so complex, it does not fail on the emotional side, now that is an achievement only met among the best musical feats i know of. And i do know something having spent over 10 years working in record stores and having listened to over 15.000 albums in the process.

I would say, and feel perfectly on the safe side, that this is as close as you can come in describing darkness in musical terms as one could. Simoultaneously though, "Filth Pig" for all its intimidating sheer dark power that it comes at you with, it's still beautiful. Beautiful as all things that can't be fully grasped at an instant.

There was one aspect in this album (achieved as of yet, only in the immediately following "Dark side of the spoon") which made it undoubtedly unique among "heavy" albums. That was that it is not fast. There's none of the typical 200m/h riffs that you'd come across almost all other heavy albums. Instead, Ministry managed to put together riffs and multisampled beats and effects that are at times even incredibly slow, and yet so overwhelmingly heavy, you have the impression you're hearing a skyscraper collapsing and producing wondrous melodies while doing so. I know of no other group that can do this the way Ministry do, and i imagine (creating electronic music myself) that it's anyway a musical aspect hard to achieve because you need to walk an extremely tight rope while trying to maintain intesity and melodies through so many layers of sound.

In my opinion, along with the debut album of "Rage against the Machine", "Roots" from Sepultura, "Dummy" from Portishead", and "Mezzanine" from Massive attack, "Filth Pig" is with these 4 in the top 5 albums i ever heard. I could go on for another 50 paragraphs explaining and detailing why this is a masterpiece. No need. Find out for yourself. Those by the way that think that "Animositisomina" is a return to good things for Ministry, have no idea onsesoever what they're talking about.

As is the case with any group's finest moment it will be close to impossible for Ministry to outdo what they achieved with "Filth Pig". It would be like expecting Tool to outdo "Aenima" to state one example. If Ministry, who are anyway one of the greatest bands ever, manage in the future to outdo this album of theirs, we'll then be talking about one truly unbelievable achievement.

If I would have reviewed this CD when I first heard it, I would have given it one star. Since then Filth Pig has grown on me somewhat. Al and Paul, after a long rest from Psalm 69, return with a very slow and trudging disc. For the most part the noisy samples are gone, being replaced with a killer guitar tone. At first, I thought this was due to a lack of imagination from a musically bankrupt man (sorry Al) but since then, I've realized that it's an intentional ploy, and a very clever one. Listening to Filth Pig is like having a safe land on your head; it's crushing. 'Dead Guy' sounds like Helmet wearing barbed wire underwear with riffs that are reminiscient of 'So What' and 'Just One Fix'. 'Lava' reminds you of a lava flow with it's slow and destructive pace. Ministry even covers Bob Dylan's 'Lay Lady Lay' if you can believe it. However, this disc can be a hard listen due to how slow its pace is. It's an acquired listen. And if you are looking for a 'Jesus Built My Hotrod' on here, you're barking up the wrong tree. I don't think Al and Paul were looking to give anything to the mainstream on this one, and that's a good thing.