The debut album by Ministry, With Sympathy was released in 1983 through Arista Records, with Ministry's members at the time being Al Jourgensen and Stephen George. Jourgensen is reported to have been pressured into making the album in the "synth pop" style by Arista management, contrasting the harder sound he developed as his career continued. With Sympathy was Ministry's only album for Arista.
With Sympathy was released as Work for Love under BMG in Europe (with the same cover). There is a video for "Revenge," which was one of three singles pulled from the album, the others being "Work for Love," and "I Wanted to Tell Her."
Jourgensen began Ministry in Chicago in 1981 and by the mid '80s had parted ways with George and Arista. Signing to Sire Records, Jourgensen performed mostly solo for Ministry's next LP, Twitch, released in 1986. The music was danceable electronic music, and according to Jourgensen, "was stuff that I was doing before With Sympathy came out." Twitch would prove to be a pivotal move in the course of Ministry. Much of the new sound was created with the use of digital sampling and the input of producer Adrian Sherwood.
Around this time, Jourgensen brought bass guitarist Paul Barker of the Seattle band The Blackouts into the Ministry camp, and Barker would remain Jourgensen's bandmate for many years when he was the only person credited as a member of the band other than Jourgensen. With the addition of The Blackouts drummer William Rieflin, Ministry recorded The Land of Rape and Honey. The LP continued their success in the underground music scene and is now considered a classic and one of the most important albums in the subgenre of industrial metal.
The follow-up, The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, was just as acclaimed, if not more than The Land of Rape and Honey.
Material: wikipedia.org
