Ministry

Psalm 69 the 5th studio album released by Ministry in the summer of 1992,has been known by a couple names. “ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ” as written on the side, or the longer name, “The way to succeed and the way to suck eggs” which comes from the Aleister Crowley book “The Book of Lies”.

Ministry were in the middle of changing their sound, bringing in different influences and members, along with growing substance abuse issues. This album featured the hit “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” which reached no. 19 on the modern rock charts. This song featured vocals from Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers and was the first song I believe I had heard from Ministry, which honestly confused me as I thought it was the Butthole Surfers.

I found this album when it came out, I was in my sophomore year of High School, and I had heard nothing like it before. Headbangers Ball was still on the air, which in a small town was some of the only ways I could find new music, underground cd stores were at least a half hour drive from where I lived, and we would always be looking for someone to drive us out there to find something new. Portable CD players were the new popular thing but still not as portable as cassettes at that time. Many people would have both the CD and cassette of the album so they could listen to it anywhere.

Going back and giving the album a re-listen brings back a lot of memories and also shows how this new style influenced many bands moving forward. Nine Inch Nails had not released Broken yet. Industrial was still very underground at the time. But when this hit, it hit fast and hard, my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

“N.W.O” – New World Order opens the album fast and hard setting the pace with what is to come. We are hit with drums out the gate, sample loops and an amazing guitar distortion. This song comes at a time when George Bush senior was president, and the gulf war was ending. It is no surprise some of the samples come from the movie Apocalypse Now.

“Just One Fix” – Opens with samples, as true industrial and metal was doing around this time: Including Sid and Nancy, Hellraiser II and Frank Sinatra. We have the repetitive abrasive guitar coming in to lead the way. As the samples begin, we know what this song is about. “Never Trust a Junkie”, interesting for them to call themselves out in such an amazing song as it is reported they may have been spending $1000 a day on drugs while making the album.

“TV II” – Starts with chaos and leads into a sporadic guitar shred, and drums mixed with drum machine beats. What separates this song from others is Al Jourgensen does most of his vocals as the music stops, the megaphone yelling style audio feels like a definitive moment into the creating of an Industrial Metal sound. I will say this may not have been one of the lead songs for the album in marketing, but I absolutely still enjoy blasting this as loud as possible whenever I get the change. Just when you think the song is about to end, the come back at you full force.

“Hero” – Begins with some sampling and loops into a traditional guitar distortion. This is another song of the Era focusing on the Gulf War and politics. Hero is meant as a sarcastic hit towards the war and following orders. We hear samples of Military Marching cadence and even a guitar solo which we do not tend to hear in music around this time much less in industrial. The lyrics even call to “the highway of death” and “We take the gas that we need.” We see in later Ministry album a push against the government war machine.

“Jesus Built my Hotrod” – The song that so many know. Originally this had no vocals, and Ministry had no idea what to do with it. Gibby Haynes was asked to help with vocals, he was absolutely drunk from what the interviews said. He mumbled and it was a difficult song to edit, mix and master, to deliver to the record label. Warner Brothers was not sure what to do with it, as it was so chaotic, they released it and double down on paying ministry for more songs.

“Scare Crow” – Starts at a slower pace than the previous songs. I feel you finally get to catch your breath from the speed and intensity for a minute. The lyrics hit at religious crucifixion and voyeurism. The steady beat, mid paced guitars, keyboards and sample leave you feeling relaxed in an otherwise abrasive situation.

“Psalm 69” – The title track wow I love this song. We open with a church sermon style voice telling us to open our prayer books. The intro is filled with samples and voices praising religion, and church chorus’s, followed with lies. It takes 1:40 before the song begins to take the speed of a normal ministry song. Al takes his stance and does not hold back on thrashing of organized religion with the grind of amazing guitar distortion. The song takes a break and brings you back the pace of the introduction. Again, after the church chorus and hymnal sounds, we are hit hard with Al yelling about the blasphemy of religion, closing with the quote from Aleister Crowley “The way to succeed and the way to suck eggs”.

“Corrosion” – Begins with a droning introduction to ring you back into the mix, followed by a playful gallop on the drums and steady distorted riffs. We are then hit with some samples before dropping back into the distorted riffs and samples. This song is pretty much an instrumental besides the vocal samples on loop throughout the song. You hear the words Corrosion yelled throughout the song along with samples pulled from some of the previous songs.

“Grace” – A closer for a beast of an album, the song begins with sounds from early industrial Avant Guard noise. We are treated to loops and screams while a guitar lets a note ride with pure distortion. Religious are dropped here from the word’s doomsday the final battle along with samples about insanity. Distorted drums are final sounds we hear as the song and the album come to a close.

Final notes on the album: Without ministry or much less albums like Psalm 69, industrial metal would not be what it is today. The sounds and modes that were created and captured here defined so many bands. It was hard to predict at the time this was released what could come next. Without bands Like Godflesh, Ministry or Skinny Puppy, we would not have had Fear Factory, Static X, Sybreed or The Browning, much less small independent bands like A Dark Halo or my own project Isolated Antagonist.

And to close out the review with a memorable mention

Psalm 69 was ranked No. 80 on the Rolling Stone’s “Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time”
The album was also included in the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”