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NEW DOUBLE LP
New sealed copy. Rhino Records Rocktober 2025 expanded limited edition reissue.
The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste is Ministry’s fourth studio album, released in 1989 through Sire Records. Building on the foundation of The Land of Rape and Honey, it pushed the band’s industrial sound into heavier, thrash-inspired territory, blending metallic guitar riffs with relentless electronic beats and samples. Al Jourgensen’s fascination with the aggression of bands like Rigor Mortis and Stormtroopers of Death informed this shift, giving the album a harder, more confrontational edge. Lyrically, it explores familiar Ministry themes—political corruption, addiction, madness, and the decay of modern society.
Recorded amid chaos and heavy drug use, the sessions were marked by dysfunction within the band, yet the disorder lent the album its raw energy. Much of the material was built through improvisation and isolated experimentation, with members often working separately rather than collaboratively. Tracks such as “Burning Inside,” “Thieves,” and “So What” became definitive Ministry statements—harsh, uncompromising, and mechanized in their precision. The album’s artwork, featuring an X-ray image from a car accident, mirrored its themes of pain and distortion.
Upon release, The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, eventually earning Gold certification in the United States. Critics hailed it as a landmark of industrial metal; AllMusic described it as a “wonderful album” that transcended genre clichés, while the Chicago Tribune called it the band’s most confident work. Over time, it has come to be seen as one of Ministry’s defining achievements—a brutal, visionary fusion of punk fury, metal weight, and machine-driven precision.
TRACKLIST:
A1 Thieves
A2 Burning Inside
A3 Never Believe
B1 Cannibal Song
B2 Breathe
B3 So What
C1 Test
C2 Faith Collapsing
C3 Dream Song
D1 Burning Inside (12" Remix)
D2 Thieves (12" Remix)
D3 Smothered Hope
