Search - Ministry :: Ministry: Animositisomina

Dualdisc not much better than the CD

Dave | 01/15/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you want a full review of this CD, check out the normal CD version on Amazon. There are dozens of good reviews. I'm focusing this review on just the Dualdisc version.



This dualdisc cost a few dollars more, and you're probably wondering if it's worth it. Here's what you get:



The CD portion:

1. Full length normal CD version of all the songs.



The DVD audio portion:

2. Full length 5.1 DVD-A version of all the songs.

3. Full length 5.1 Dolby Digital version of all the songs.

4. A very short interview with some band members about making Animositisomina.

5. A brief text biography of Ministry.



The DVD ROM portion:

6. A lame movie about how 5.1 sound is mastered.

7. Encoded WMA and AAC files of all the tracks.



The 5.1 DVD-A and 5.1 Dolby Digital version of the album are a little more interesting than the normal CD version. The 5.1 versions generally give you the feel that your surrounded by the music, with vocals from the center channel, guitars and drums from the front two channels, and backup vocals and other effects from the rear surround speakers. This is a bit unadventurous, especially from a band like Ministry. Other bands, The Crystal Method for example, use 5.1 audio to play lots of neat audio tricks, like sending sound swirling around the room or bouncing a drum track back and forth between two different speakers. Ministry's 5.1 mastering of Animositisomina is much less interesting.



But you can only listen to the 5.1 versions if you have 6 analog multichannel connections from your DVD player to your amp. Most people don't have this set-up because they don't regularly listen to DVD-A and SACD. If you have this set up, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you don't already have that kind of setup, the DVD-A version will play as normal stereo and won't sound much different from the CD version unless you have a very sharp ear and an expensive set of speakers. Even then, the difference is only very slight.



The other DVD extras are all pretty worthless. I have no idea why they provide you with encrypted WMA and AAC files. Don't most people want to do this encoding themselves? The text biography is nothing that you can't find on the web, and the band interview is very very short and not at all interesting.



So is this worth the extra money? If you already have 6 channel analog connections from your DVD player to you 5.1 capable amp, then the higher quality and more engrossing sound from the DVD-A and Dolby versions make this Dualdisc worth a few extra bucks. Otherwise, just buy the cheaper CD version.



I would give the CD version 4 stars. I'm also giving the Dualdisc version 4 stars because it doesn't offer much of an improvement."

Cd great, dvd sucks

Hoss McBoss | 12/14/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"ministry's last good album. everyone likes houses of the mole, but i think it's just an attempt by al to go back to the formula that sold the most albums, but what do i know? this album heads in that direction as well, but i think it's a lot more original and has many more influences of different genres of music. after paul left, the music moved backward.



anyway, the dvd part sucks because the only actual footage of anything is mostly just some cameraman in a vehicle shooting footage of run-down texas, with a few clips of al and paul saying crap about the then "new" album. the rest is an article about their comeback and when playing each song on the dvd function there's a different picture of the band and/or then-band members. the sound quality is supposed to be twice as good, but it sounds just as good as the regular album, which is already good quality.



just get the album instead (which alone i would give five f*cking stars)."