Each new
Ministry album is an exercise in stress-testing the listener, generating a sonic bombardment that grinds through the outer protective layers and churns up whatever lies beneath. The lyrics in
Ministry songs often don't matter -- what matters is the tone and shape of the music, the precise way in which the instrument sounds and samples are twisted, straightened, kinked, crushed, broken, reassembled, or done unto; whether drum sounds have this kind of gated reverb or that kind of overdriven chorusing; and just what they mean to impart with this tempo or that.
Filth Pig is 54 minutes of slow-churn sandpaper attitude, a record that includes a cover of
Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" that is one half friendly homage and one half power-tool demolition derby. This is
Ministry, though, a race through dark places, driven by the razorbass. ~ Steven McDonald