As gloriously demented as he is, Al Jourgensen is smart enough to know that neither Sphinctour (6⁄10) nor Animositisomina (5⁄10) are particular highlights in the Ministry catalogue. That said, both have their charms.
The former was the last album to feature long-time bassist Paul Barker and sounds very much like the work of a band on the edge of collapse. There are some great riffs, some choice bits of vocal insanity and a decent cover of Magazine’s The Light Pours Out Of Me, but compared to the dizzy heights of 1992’s Psalm 69 or its bruising follow-up Filth Pig (1996), it’s a weak chapter in an otherwise gripping story.
softwareuiphraseguid=“749917e6-62d0-42c4-82ca-c61e614d233e”>Sphinctour is a live album from the legendarily debauched Filth Pig world tour. As a result, it was never going to successfully mirror the spiralling insanity of that period in Ministry history, but it does pack a raw and meaty punch and boasts suitably coruscating versions of N.W.O., Just One Fix and Thieves.
The real gem here is 2004’s Houses Of The Molé (8⁄10): the first of Jourgensen’s George W. Bush-bashing album trilogy. It’s a blistering industrial thrash assault from start to finish, and a gleeful white-knuckle encapsulation of Jourgensen’s subversive approach to punkrock politics. The mad sod.
