Ministry ‎– Filth Pig

Indeed, a truly underrated record, nearly a masterpiece in my opinion - but I must confess that it took me a couple years to eventually get into it, even though I had been a fan of the band since the late eighties.

indeed mine has no insert.

Major labels are a for-profit concept, they occupy the repugnant territory of commerce being made out of art. It is for this reason I find Filth Pig to be such an excellent work. Warner Bros. had to promote this thing months before it came out, via the radical left turn of The Fall. When Luxa and Pan did return to the public eye, it was no longer as the darlings of LOLapalooza but as yet again, renegades under the corporate banner. There was just enough smelling of profit to get away with this, but it's no surprise the band were dropped after their next album Dark Side of the Spoon.

I cannot think of a louder or more strident 'fuck you' being delivered to a record company than Filth Pig. Trading in the hard and fast elements of previous work, Ministry spewed venom. They vomited bile onto the expectations of their new-found fair-weather mtv fans. Slowing it down tempo-wise proved to be a very prescient move on the part of Jourgenson and Barker. I hadn't thought them capable of such glorious grind.

This is when Ministry became a seriously powerful rock band. Call their brand of rock whatever you like but there are no complaints here about what they accomplished. It's a shame that this outing proved to be a one-off, the arrangements and overall complexity still reveal themselves further with each listen. 15 years later.

I totally agree with the other reviewers. Filth pig is maybe the best ministry album...well at least for me it is. And it is one of my all time favourite albums. Don't know why, but everyone expects from ministry fast and speed metal type releases. They fell in that trap with their last albums and that's why the good tunes are missing from them. Filth pig has killer songs like ''The fall'', ''Dead guy'', ''Lava'' and ''Filth pig''. I have a feeling that this is Al Jourgensens favourite Ministry album. If you're a Ministry fan and you don't like this album...Sorry you're not a ministry fan

Am I the only one who actually likes "Filth Pig"? I remember when it was released back in 1996: any magazine or fanzine said it was a disappointment, a bad album, the beginning of the end of Ministry. Anyone was expecting something faster and more violent than "Psalm 69", but no one understood that the only possible answer was to slow down and explore dark, gloomy atmospheres. Honestly, how could you possibly go faster than "Psalm 69"?
Apart from the initial dissonant chaos of "Reload", an appropriate title for a track which sounds like a heating exercise, both "Filth Pig" and, especially "Lava", are original and intriguing swamps of doom/sludge sounds, slow hypnotical rhythms and strange tunes sounding like country music played by undead cowboys in the middle of Mexican ghost town.
"The Fall" is exciting, the album's best song and, imo, one of Ministry's best, apocalyptic, desperate and even melodic, with deformed piano chords swinging on a background of heavy machinery noise rhythms and Jourgensen's epic singing. Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" is turned into an interesting noise rock ride, possibly one of the band's most "commercial" exploits, while final "Brick Windows" is another very good piece of work.
The four central tracks, from "Crumbs" to "Game Show" are, indeed, weak and rather uninteresting, you can skip theme without regrets.
On the whole, "Filth Pig" is surely not a masterpiece, but it's still a very good album in Ministry's discography, featuring some great examples of their courage to change and experiment with their sound on each release.
Maybe now that they have disbanded someone will start rediscovering it.

Judging by opinions I've read elsewhere, "Filth Pig" seems to be one of Ministry's rather less-acclaimed albums, and I don't know why. Admittedly, I'm not a Ministry fan, and I liked but didn't love their classic albums "Psalm 69" and "The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste", but I think "Filth Pig" is f**king great. With its slower tempo and droning guitars the music has a wonderful flow, often employing an early-Swans type of machine music technique. The album has a particular effect of enveloping the listener in beautiful rhythmic waves of sound. The lead vocal on the song "Useless" sounds exactly like Jim Thirlwell, but he isn't credited so I guess he doesn't appear on the album (or does he?). If the typical Ministry fan can't get into this album I imagine people who like Killing Joke and Joy Division are more likely to enjoy it.

To me this personally is the best Ministry release - even though I like most their albums. What makes Filthpig special is the heavyness and the handling of the bass I feel. This is the CD I really recommend - much more than the past releases after it!