MINISTRY / The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste (1989)

The industrial genre owes a huge debt to Killing Joke, but Ministry really ought to owe them some royalties, too. They took everything that was good about KJ and turned it to max by adding extra aggression (borrowed from thrash) and some film samples, then fed that through a distorted sieve.
Allowing Chris Connelly to take primary vocal duties on some tracks helped immensely. Al's distorted diatribes are great in context, but Connelly's deranged ramblings are, for me, a highlight on an album by a band that in turn became as influential to others as KJ had been to them. It took Industrial to the masses.

Songs of Note: Thieves; Breathe

4½ hypocrites and bastards out of 5

LARD / The Last Temptation of Reid (1990)

Lard is one of the better side projects put out by members of industrial band Ministry (when they were still good). It benefits from having the outspoken and arguably insane Jello Biafra on vocals. It sounds exactly like you'd hope: Industrial Jello and Punky Ministry. Its repetitive beats, heavy guitars and satirical rants won't appeal to everyone, but fans of both artists mentioned will most likely appreciate the aural assault. It descends into silly mediocrity at the end, but there are enough punchy classics prior to that to warrant a purchase.

Songs of Note: Forkboy; Mate Spawn and Die

4 voyeur dentists out of 5

MINISTRY / Relapse (2012)

The new Ministry album proves once again that the band made their last good album in 1992 (ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ). Relapse is a boring mesh of diluted Filth Pig (1996) riffs and some very obvious filler that Al appears to have had left over from his other projects. The cover of SOD's 'United Forces' made me want to listen to Slayer, that's the only positive thing I can muster to say about the album. Did Ministry get tired or did I get tired of Ministry? Or both?

Songs of Least Fail: United Forces

1 because a zero is just too cruel out of 5