Search - Ministry :: Cover Up

Covering Up

Melkor | San Diego, CA USA | 04/16/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is an o.k. collection. It's not as bad as a lot of the reviewers are saying. At the same time, it's not going to be my favorite Ministry album.



The new covers: There's a real mix bag of classic rock covers here from the Rolling Stones, T Rex, Deep Purple, Mountain, ZZ Top, Golden Earing, and Ram Jam. The covers are good. Not the best that Ministry have done, but quite listenable. It's a decent enough selection of songs, and their cover of Louis Armstrong's "What a wonderful world" is pretty hilarious.



The old covers: This is the annoying part. They include three tracks that most all Ministry fans already have. There's The Doors "Roadhouse Blues", which appeared on "The Last Sucker", the band's most recent album. They also include "Lay Lady Lay" from the "Filth Pig" album and "Supernaut" from the 1000 Homo DJs album (which Ministry just reissued in 2004 on a CD called "Side Trax"). These are all great tracks, but it is annoying that the band reissued three songs that are very easy to find and two songs that were released within in past four years.



What's missing? First, and most important, Ministry's cover of Skinny Puppy's "Smothered Hope" from the B-side of the "Burning Inside" single. This is a live track from the tour when Skinny Puppy's Ogre joined Ministry on stage, and it is -in my opinion- the finest cover that Ministry ever did. As a huge Skinny Puppy fan, I will even admit that I find the Ministry version of that song to be far superior to the original. It would have been a great inclusion because it is still a very difficult track to find. Some easier to find, but glaring omissions, are also missing from this CD. First are the Rev Co covers of "(Let's Get) Physical" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy", and also the Ministry cover of Magazines "The Light Pours Out of Me" from the mostly ignored Animositisomina album. I'm sure there are others that I am not thinking of now.



Another thing missing from the album is a diversity of sound. My one (and only) complaint about the post-Paul Barker years of Ministry is that all of the albums after his departure have a singular sound to them. When Paul was in the band, there would be the occasional track that would slow things down and let the songs open up, as opposed to the consistent sonic assault of the post-Paul albums (a.k.a. the "Bush Trilogy"). "Cover Up" suffers from the same problem as those albums, where a lot of the songs bleed into each other with the same wall-of-sound that's encompassed Ministry's last three albums. For me, that Ministry wall of distortion doesn't always fit with the classic and iconic riffs that they are covering.



All in all, this is a very o.k. CD. I can tell this is a CD that is going to grow on my with future listens. At this point I just don't know if I'm going to grow more fond of it, or if I'm going to grow to really not like it at all.

"

Fantastic Cd well worth getting

Alexandra Torbycz | Florham Park, NJ USA | 04/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some cover cds just suck. Like those terrible cleopatra records ones with like 50 goth bands doing bad spooky versions of the songs we love. This however is different. Fantastic covers, some songs oyu may not like you'll like, and Burton from FF and Ascention of the Watchers is on here too. I guess a little added treat. Also al let's us off with a cover of it's a wonderful world. Again, and again, and again. Each a little differnt. One half easy listening half aggressive, one all aggressive, one all easy listening. Makes you kinda choke up and cry really. With ministry it really IS a wonderfull world. Now that they're done, and once his tour is over, well, what's there to life for?"

Not in the same ball park as previous work, but a fun cover

Rajiv Hirak Pace | denver, co | 05/29/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Some many people have been giving Al and company crap for this release saying it is not the same Ministry as they know and love. Well DUH!!!!!! it is a covers record, not an album about politics or drug problems. Just sit back and listen to there version of some great rock classics.



"Radar love" and "Bang a Gong" are my personal favorite of the newer covers. "Space truckin" is fun as well with Tommy Victor on vocals. The only complaint I have is that they included "roadhouse blues" on here which is stupid because that came out last year on "The Last Sucker."



It is a fun rock/metal record of covers, have a beer and enjoy."