DIS vs DAT - Genre vs Genre - The Sphere Edition
Inspired by Chris Van Ettan splitting hairs over which genre an album from a different clan has (thrash or speed metal, death metal or grindcore, power metal or trad metal and sludge vs. stoner vs. doom), I decided to continue the DIS vs DAT activity with an interesting twist; instead of voting on which album has the greater edge, we do it with genres from one of the clans instead. Single-genre clans (like The Gateway and The Sphere) would be divided into hidden subgenres that some of us have heard of but are never listed in the site (for example, alternative metal vs nu metal, industrial metal vs neue Deutsche härte). This should be a nice interesting challenge for Chris and other members of the site. Got two or three albums from a different genre in the same clan and same release year but can't decide which one has the greater edge? Share them here!
Continuing the tournament from the original DIS vs DAT Thread - The Sphere Edition, here are two Sphere albums released in 2004. I haven't listened to any of these albums myself, so this is up to listeners of these albums to decide. Which one of these albums with a different subgenre has the greater edge? Choose one and explain the reason!
Industrial metal:
Neue Deutsche Härte:
Sadly I think it's unfair for Ministry to include any album other than Psalm 69 in this head to head because many of their albums are massive drops in quality, and Houses Of The Mole is no exception. I heard that this was a return to form from Ministry, which is good since the industrial riffs and energy are still there, but the political ranting and overall style of the album is just trying way too hard to be shocking and edgy. There are a few good tracks here and there but nothing you couldn't get off of Psalm 69.
Rammstein's Reise Reise, however, is just a great album pretty much through and through. It's an extension of Mutter with a slightly lighter tone overall and even less EDM influences, but has the signature Rammstein riffs on "Mein Teil", "Moskau", and "Keine Lust" to really carry the album.
From the albums shown here, Rammstein takes it.
Ministry - 0
Rammstein - 1
I've just listened to and reviewed both of those 2004 Sphere albums, and I consider them both good 4-star releases that help shape up industrial metal into the modern times. But the one I prefer is... Houses of the Mole! Yeah, I prefer that Ministry album which has a killer mix of industrial riffs with the energy of modern extreme metal that I'm more used to. Rammstein's Reise Reise is good too, but it's a little hard to understand because of the lyrics being mostly German, not to mention ranging from horrific ("Mein Teil") to humorous ("Keine Lust"). Of course, there is some good powerful riffing in the epic title track and the fancy dance-y "Moskau". Anyway, Ministry makes my vote!
Houses of the Mole - 1
Reise Reise - 1