The Sphere

I think it's incredible that this is the album that preceded Mutter, because this is so much less refined and overall kind of boring. The EDM portion of Rammstein's music is one of the things that makes it Neue Deutsche Härte, and Rammstein really wanted to hammer that home on this album. It's incredibly hokey on tracks like "Sehnsucht", "Eifersucht" and "Küss Mich (Fellfrosch)" where they really try to make their electronic beats sound like bumping club music. The electronics work really well in normal Rammstein fashion on tracks like "Engel" and of course "Du Hast" where they're used to inject another interesting melody alongside the signature guitar riffing and heavy tone, but the rest of the tracks were duds for me. It's not bad by any means but you can really tell that they were really dead set on trying to integrate as many wacky sound effects or EDM beats as possible amidst the riffing. The vocal performance is still strong though, although from what I know it's better if you don't know what the lyrics actually mean and settle for "German sounds cool for this kind of music". 

This is an important stepping stone album for Neue Deutsche Härte since Mutter, released 4 years later, abandons a lot of the silliness and shows the band maturing a ton. I think this album is great for people who really want a true Neue Deutsche Härte experience since they really dig into the EDM roots, but it pales in comparison to their next two or three albums for me. 

3/5

Well said Xephyr. I've read an interview with Godflesh mastermind Justin Broadrick where he says that "Streetcleaner" was the outcome of the group repeatedly watching David Lynch's "Eraserhead" whilst under the influence of LSD. That makes a lot of sense once you hear "Streetcleaner" because it's just as confronting & polarizing in its incredibly cold atmosphere. I absolutely love this record. In fact, I regard it as the absolute pinnacle of the industrial metal subgenre.

Immediately when I threw this on, I was reminded of something, and I couldn't put my finger on it until the third or fourth track. Sybreed, at least on this album, sounds like what modern In Flames should have sounded like if they knew how to write interesting riffs and melodies that complemented the softer Melodic Death Metal approach. While I don't really care for modern In Flames, especially compared to their classic material, I never thought it was terrible, so this album was a treat for me. I'm already a pretty big fan of heavier electronic music, like Darksynth for instance, so hearing well written riffs with complex electronic beats really resonates well with me. There are some tracks in here that feel pretty uninspired though, like "Isolate" and "Permafrost", but overall it maintains a solid quality throughout the whole thing. I wish it would lean into the EDM side a bit more, especially towards the end where it just feels like more of the same Melodic Death riff over and over, but I still like what's going on here. 

3.5/5, but it may get repetitive if I end up listening to it again. 

Oh yeah, now this is what I'm talking about. This was legitimately my first time listening to Ministry ever and these guys are riff and chug masters. "N.W.O.", "Just One Fix", "Scare Crow", and even "Corrosion" have some of the heaviest riffs I've heard in quite some time. Some bands are just able to nail that guitar and drum tone that just makes the the riffs chug, and Ministry is definitely one of those. The whole album is dark and gritty but still has an insane amount of energy and momentum as well as some hilarious tongue-in-cheek political and religious commentary, which surprisingly doesn't take away from the album. 

While I think I could build up to appreciating something more grating and monotonous, this is an easy 4/5 for me even on the first listen. The amount of influence this album had must have been insane, because through "N.W.O.", "Just One Fix", and "Scare Crow" I was reminded of so many other heavy metal songs that came out much, much later than this did. 

Me too.

Definitely. They’ve got a lot more energy & urgency than the sludgier Godflesh. It sounds like that might appeal to you more.

I wish I could say that I was excited for a new Fear Factory album, but it has been a long time since they released anything of any note. There are always one or two decent tracks, but nothing close to Demanufacture period.