It’s hard to believe that industrial legends Ministry have been around (in one incarnation or another) for forty years but here they are in 2021, returning with their fifteenth full length studio album. Another title including amusing wordplay, Moral Hygiene (Nuclear Blast Records) is yet another solid release by Al Jourgensen and co. and features a few surprises along the way.
The lights came up… and it was all over.
This has been the scenario for thousands of shows I have seen. Maybe 6,000 plus shows that I have attended or performed in since I was a small child. The final bow, thunderous applause, and the blinding lights of the house coming on, our shared experience ending as we gather ourselves to go to the bar, or home. Except this was different. This was the last time I would ever see Slayer. It was definitely hitting me, long before the final notes of ‘Angel of Death’ rang out and the final jets of pyro screamed across the top of the band in a way that would excite Beavis and Butthead to no end. Continue reading
The year was 1993 and the times they were a changing. The generational pull of Gen X was underway and a new American President ushered in a hopeful, new time for a while. Some of the cultural touchstones of the time included a weekly science fiction program about aliens and monsters dominated prime time in The X-files, the best comedy in ages, Groundhog Day reminded us why Bill Murray was and is a goddamned national treasure, and Jurassic Park was the most dominant movie in half a decade. Also, a little known “alternative metal” band from Los Angeles, by way of everywhere else named Tool hit the scene with their début full-length album and changed the course of modern music. Oddly those particular references to pop culture coinciding with Tool’s ascendance from the underground to popularity all signal a weird synchrony that was represented by the band and the music they brought to bear.