The Land Of Rape And Honey Norristown PA

The Land Of Rape And Honey

Ministry

Sire Records, 1988

REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/03/1999

Blame it on the synth-heavy band, hemmorhage, but for somereason in the late '80s, many heavy-metal bands were doing theirbest not to include keyboards in their albums. Most were afraidadding keyboards was a symbol that the band was getting soft.

Anthrax with keyboards? The horror! Metallica? Sure as hell hopenot! Megadeth? No way, they are waaaay to heavy to includekeyboards. Little did a pimple-faced critic of synth realize thatin 1988 a band released an album that re-defined what heavy was tomusic.

The band was Ministry, and Al Jourgensen and Paul Barkerreleased The Land Of Rape And Honey. It was perhaps one of thescariest albums released in the '80s. The relentless beats begin tobombard the listener as soon as they put this release in. From thebrain hemmorhage beat of "Stigmata" to the closing of "Abortive," The Land Of Rape And Honey helped bring industrial music tothe masses before Nine Inch Nails took it to the mainstream.

If you can't understand the lyrics to " The Land of Rape And Honey, don't bother. Just let the musicbombard you. Guitars are distorted, releasing white squalls ofsound throughout such tracks as "Destruction" and "You Know WhatYou Are." But what's really stunning is the sense of fear alistener gets while listening to The Land Of Rape And Honey. In most of the tracks, you canalmost see some unfortunate soul get sucked up in one of themoshing/mauling pits to one of their concerts. And see them getclobbered by the raging freaks who mistake this unlucky bastard fora frat boy.