THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums #9 & #10: Ministry – Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs (Sire, 1992) and Ministry – Filth Pig (Sire, 1996)

Ministry was the first band that scared the shit out of me.  Al Jourgensen and his henchmen released Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs (aka ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ) in 1992, a full year before I would hear death metal for the first time, but even when I finally did experience the likes of Morbid Angel and Entombed, they didn’t freak me out like Ministry did.  The video for “N.W.O.” depicted scenes of war and civil unrest yanked straight from the nightly news, and Jourgensen walking through the smoke and rubble aftermath with his hands in his pockets, no fucks given about the world around him coming apart at the seams. This wasn’t the typical nonsense that heavy metal bands depicted in their videos, this was real fucking life.