MINISTRY
ANIMOSITISOMINA
SANCTUARY
LINKS:
animostisomina.com
sanctuaryrecordingsgroup.com

Prepare for the sonic barrage of simultaneous beautiful bombast and angelic angst….what? You think these descriptions are an oxymoron, somewhat like jumbo shrimp? Then you have never had the pleasure of listening to a Ministry album on its many myriad levels at a very high volume. And believe me, that is the only way to listen to their new disc, Animositisomina. Actually, that is the only way to listen to any Ministry album, otherwise you lose the nuances of the layered, digitized, and distorted sounds.
Well, thanks to the new disc by Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker, my neighbors here in East Harlem are now truly convinced, as if they weren’t sure of it before, that I am the spawn of the devil and have the soundtrack to go along with it. Opening with the scorcher “Animosity”, and running through11 tracks, the duo have somehow condensed their post-apocalyptic rage down to a containable level…that is, just enough to allow our current technology to capture its fury for your listening, um, pleasure. Tracks such as “Piss” and “Broken” bubble and blister like acid on skin, burning straight through to the bone. Also included is the industrial-psychedelic cover of Magazine’s “The Light Pours Out Of Me”, which they have been doing in their live sets since ’88.
The album is heavy, yet tripped out. It’s an exercise in absolute and total technical abuse. The fun part will be seeing them take it on the road.
Of special note is the fact that this is the first time that Al has acquiesced to include the lyrics in the liner notes--talk about adding a new and twisted dimension to the compositions—and you thought you knew what he was saying all those years.
----Christine Natanael