Greatest Fits

Greatest Fits spans many years of the band's history, from their industrial dance breakthrough "Land of Milk and Honey" to a pair of previously unreleased 2001 tracks. In that sense, this 13-track compilation is a great overview that careens from one jagged sonic peak to another, including the dizzy "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" (with guest vocalist Gibby Haynes calling out his nonsensical lyrics like he's at a nuthouse square dance), rarities (a dark, charged live version of "So What," the spare efficiency of "Reload"'s 12-inch remix), and the '90s MTV fodder of "Just One Fix" and "NWO." But those tracks also underscore the fact that while Ministry may have evolved dramatically from '80s synth-poppers to a pioneering '90s industrial powerhouse, their formulaic mix of thrash guitar riffs, monstrous mechanized bass and drum grooves, and occasionally clever samples seemingly ran out of gas mid-decade. And if one doubts Ministry's troubling clich© potential, check out Steven Spielberg's A.I.; when mainstream cinema's most successful director wanted a sleazy house band for the film's WWF-meets-SRL Flesh Fair sequence, he turned to Al Jourgensen and company to essentially play themselves. Ironically, their contribution to the film, "What About Us?" (along with a new cover of Black Sabbath's "Supernaut") offers some hope; the group's ever-assaultive take on the Ministry sound is at once stripped down, better structured, and--dare we say it?--more accessible. Why, we're whistling it right now. --Jerry McCulley