Album of the Day

Ministry's dark and intense fusion of industrial and metal musics reached a peak on THE MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO TASTE. The title, cover art, and even the samples (from films such as Full Metal Jacket, Prince of Darkness, and Hellraiser II) in these nine tracks show a band out for blood, but the 1989 Sire collection is as rewarding as it is challenging. Recording sessions at Chicago Trax Studios were rather disjointed, with band members working alone for the most part, but frontman Al Jourgensen and partner-in-crime Paul Barker fashioned a compelling and sinister whole from them. Packed with buzzing guitar riffs, piledriver rhythms and menacing vocals, the Gold-certified THE MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO TASTE turns an x-ray eye on political, cultural, environmental and personal collapse.