I must admit I don’t know a whole lot about Ministry other than a few things I have read about them and their music. I first found them the way most people probably did. That being through songs like Jesus Built My Hotrod and Just One Fix. These are industrial rock/metal songs although I have heard them referred to more like hardcore punk. You could argue that if you want. I think less Dead Kennedys, and more if Depeche Mode didn’t sing Just Can’t Get Enough and instead played their style of music with more politics in a metal fashion the way Ministry has done for the majority of their career.

I remember some MTV/VH1 thing bringing up that Ministry actually started as a Snythpop band. I remember them playing this up like it was some sort of magical metamorphosis the group had gone through. I remember at the time eating that up. Not anymore. I don’t care what the situation was with lead singer Alain Jourgensen at the time, the reason for the ultimately minor change that only looks huge, and stupid comments on their videos saying:

“Hopefully those synth pop loving post punk wannabes have been flushed out with this ministry, dragged on the street under cars and murdered with hate crimes.”

I didn’t make that up. That’s an actual comment left on one of their videos.

I listen to this, then The Land of Rape and Honey and hear the same kind of song. Synthpop and Industrial Rock/Metal are related genres. The fact that he chose to go with something more hardcore didn’t fundamentally change their sound like a metamorphosis would suggest. I like their Synthpop sound too before they expanded on it and made it harder. I welcome an edgier Depeche Mode. Just like I welcome them saying that’s not for them and evolving their sound. It’s just ridiculous when you hear talk about this like it’s a metamorphosis. If Neil Sedaka decided to start playing heavy metal, then sure, but not this. This is the creation/mass discovery of a new style of music built on previous ones. Ministry just happened to not just be at the forefront, but actually started on the edges of the main original genre and tweaked it till they found their true voice.

As for the music video itself, it makes me think of the shot on video Japanese 80s horror film Death Powder (1986).

Death Powder (1986, dir. Shigeru Izumiya)

I haven’t even watched that movie either other than to get a screenshot earlier this year, and it is still the first thing that comes to mind when I look at this video.

I mentioned before how related the two styles are to each other, but you can really tell when you watch the video. It’s like you can literally see something such as Jesus Built My Hotrod lying just under every surface in the video ready to burst out. Especially burst right out Jourgensen’s face and body.

I like connections, so it made sense to use this as the first Ministry music video to feature.