Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey (1988)^{Release ID: 1592}

I introduced Ben to these Chicago industrial metal legends through the more popular tracks from their classic 1992 fifth album "ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ [Psalm 69]" shortly after it was released & those experiences saw him racing out & purchasing the CD post haste. We both went pretty nuts for that record for a long while afterwards & Ben would subsequently go about picking up a handful of other Ministry CDs in the coming months, including 1988's excellent "The Land of Rape & Honey" third album which is the centre of this discussion. It was the first Ministry record to see mastermind Al Jourgensen's signature sound starting to take shape with songs like the brilliant high-octane industrial metal anthem "The Missing" & the very solid industrial rock/metal hybrid "Deity" being closest to the mark. "The Land of Rape & Honey" is very much a story of two halves though with the B side being dominated by more of an electro-industrial sound like we'd heard on a chunk of Ministry's more-than-decent 1986 sophomore album "Twitch". For this reason, I'm gonna suggest that "The Land of Rape & Honey" feels a little like a transition record as it hasn't quite committed to its sound as yet but is still full of high-quality industrial music. Thankfully, I'm more than down for some well-produced electro-industrial material, as evidenced by how nuts I've gone for the powerful dancefloor number "You Know What You Are" this week which I'm pretty devastated I never considered dropping into my club sets while DJing during the 2000's. The quality does fade a little over the last couple of tracks though with electro closer "Abortive" in particular sounding like a bit of a mess.

I'm sure there's probably a bit of a nostalgia factor with how much enjoyment I've gotten out of this release this week but I'm gonna suggest that it's a slightly better record than 1996's highly regarded sixth full-length "Filth Pig" or the previously mentioned "Twitch", even if it doesn't reach the upper echelons of Ministry's potential like the incredible trio of "The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste", "In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (Live)" & "ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ [Psalm 69]" did during their 1989-1992 heyday. Any Ministry fan worth their salt should definitely be well versed in "The Land of Rape & Honey" though because Al hasn't produced anything of this quality for well over three decades now.

For fans of Skinny Puppy, Front 242 & KMFDM.

I swear I've heard this album before, but it's not on my log for some reason.  That Kind of annoys me, so I'm fixing that right now.  I know I did at some point, because I remember thinking to myself, "this album is certainly not metal enough to be industrial metal."  I didn't get that with the other Ministry albums; I all tagged the properly.  And after listening to it, I still feel that way.  I can't really vote on that, though, so forget the hall for now.

So the album seems to almost be more punk than metal, and its repetition is both aesthetically appealing to a punk fan like me, but also a bit disappointing concerning the other electro-industrial bands at the time who focused more on composition, like Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly.  I was pretty happy when the more psychedelic route was taken on Golden Dawn, but I felt the twist came a little late.  But I can really get behind that proud independent power.  Instead of focusing on dancing, it's basically pumping you up to the max.  And while melody can sometimes DRASTICALLY suffer for this, the shouted vocals and raw abrasion can still satisfy.  I gotta say, I love that mutant army vocal effect on You Know What You Are.

I like my industrial music with a little more melody, but this certainly sufficed otherwise.  Hardcore punk attitude, great vocal effects and some good noisy production make this an improvement over Twitch.

The album starts off quite energetically, with some simple yet aggressive and heavy riffs and some artificial but effective beats with some nice double bass work giving it some extra power. After the first couple of songs, it shifts more towards Electro-Industrial territory and loses its metallic edge. It also slows down considerably, and relies on sampling to break its simple, repetitive beats. Most of the non-musical noises thrown in add little to the sound and are usually just abrasive for the sake of being abrasive. The instrumental tracks are especially hard to bear, as Al’s manic, crazed vocals are one of the main appeals to the album.

An incredibly unique record when it was first conceived, and highly influential to Industrial Metal and other similar circles of music. Today, it is too simple and limited without offering any staying power to hold up very well.