Ministry

The duo of Paul Barker and Al Jourgensen are back with an absolute vengeance. Four years since their last release, there is a lot of material here that has been seething and festering like an angry boil on the face of aggressive music. It all comes to a head here with tracks like the opener "Animosity" and the scathing commentary on Jourgensen's drug history entitled "Piss." Several points of interest: For the first time ever the lyrics are included in the sleeve, and they recorded for the first time the cover of Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me," a song they have only performed live in the past. The best part of this disc is that although they stay true to the guitar-heavy and percussive sound, the songs don't sound as if they could be just a set of B-sides from one of their other albums - their sound is newer, cleaner but expectedly dark. Jourgensen's vocals are more discernable than usual, giving listeners a bit of an edge as far as reading their meaning goes. If Ministry lost you with 1999's Dark Side of the Spoon, let this one bring you back.