The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste
	Produced by Hypo Luxa/Hermes Pan
	Released on November 8, 1989
	US CHART POSITION #163 . . . GOLD RECORD
	Find it at GEMM
26004-2 cover [high resolution scan]

M inistry cranks the evil knob up to 11 and manages to make an even scarier record than Land. Mind tightens the industrial attack by replacing music with machine noises, heightening the insanity with sampled voices, and bridging the intensity of punk and speed metal for a nihilism-to-the-nth-power revelation. Rape was a brutal album, lurid and hellish, but unintelligible lyrics allowed you to dismiss the talk of stigmata and deities as halloweenish if you wanted. Mind doesn’t let you off the meat hook so easily; it binds you, tapes your eyeballs open and makes you watch the horror. The stripped-down attack of drums, saw guitar, machines, beats and disembodied voices points back to punk rock and PiL, points forward to NIN, Rage, Manson and just about everything else industrial. At the time, Anthrax and Nitzer Ebb were making music similar to this but less intense, like an R-rated slasher movie compared to snuff porn. Lyrics about a succubus (“Dream Song”), thrill kills (“So What”) and surviving in a hellish reality (“Breathe,” “Cannibal Song”) were way, way beyond the pale in 1989. In taking on what they perceived to be the two biggest evils in society, government and religion, Ministry’s weapon of choice is clearly shock. But that shock had value for a generation who wanted to articulate their anger above the cacophany of media bombardment: MTV videos, political soundbites and CNN. Ministry had a Mind to elevate the anger, and in doing so they set the stage for the industrial, death metal and even the rap-metal movements to come. More than a landmark record, Mind is a headstone record that marks the death and corruption of rock and roll into something foul, frightening and fascinating.

26004-2 back sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. THIEVES    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker/Chris Connelly/K.Ogilvie)    5:00
2. BURNING INSIDE    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker/William Rieflin/Chris Connelly)    5:16
3. NEVER BELIEVE    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker/Chris Connelly)    4:58
4. CANNIBAL SONG    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker/Chris Connelly)    6:07
5. BREATHE    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker/William Rieflin/Chris Connelly/K.Ogilvie)    5:38
6. SO WHAT    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker/William Rieflin/Chris Connelly)    8:12
7. TEST    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker/William Rieflin/K.Lite)    6:02
8. FAITH COLLAPSING    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker/William Rieflin)    4:00
9. DREAM SONG    (Alien Jourgensen/Paul Barker)    4:50

CREDITS

PAUL BARKER -- bass, programming
ALIEN JOURGENSEN -- vocals, guitars, programming
Chris Connelly -- lead vocals (3,4), background vocals (5,6)
Bobby di Bartollo -- background vocals (8)
The Grand Wizard (K.Lite) -- lead vocals (7)
Joe Kelly -- background vocals (1)
Angela Lukacen -- background vocals (9)
Kyle McKeough -- background vocals (6)
David Ogilvie -- background vocals (5,8), engineer
William Rieflin -- drums, programming, background vocals (8)
The Slogan God (Tommie Boyskee) -- background vocals (7)
Jeff Ward -- background vocals (5)
Mars Williams -- saxophone (4)
Keith Auerbach -- engineer
Jeff Newell -- engineer
Dog, Ill, Maura -- cover design
Tom Young -- cover photos

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