Note: I spend this entire review comparing this record to a Ministry record which came out in 1998, but which I wrongly thought came out two days earlier. So this review can be ignored.

I had an acquaintance in high school – a friend of a friend more than a friend – who used to wear band t-shirts more than just about anyone else in our grade, and they were always of bands I’d never heard of that with names that sounded scary or logos that looked scary, looked like bands my mothers would never tolerate. He had at least one KMFDM t-shirt. I’m not sure I ever heard any of their music but, because of the way the shirt looked and because this guy wear it, I got a certain impression of this band.

On a completely different note: I was just reviewing The Land of Rape and Honey, which Wikipedia implies is the second ever industrial metal record. But this record came out in the same month, there are “metal” guitars (at times) and this is their 7th record. I don’t know but it certainly seems as though KMFDM might have beaten Ministry to the punch, despite what Wikipedia says.

But KMFDM are so much more dance, so much catchier than Ministry, it’s clear, however loud the guitars – such as on “A Drug Against War,” which has to be considered industrial metal, no? – Ministry is much more “metal” in spirit than KMFDM. Not only that, KMFDM has a sense of humour. Not many metal bands have senses of humour.

This is a better sounding record than the Ministry record; maybe they had a better budget or were using better technology but the draw back of that is that it actually manages to sound more of its time – there are tracks here that hue closer to ’90s dance music cliche than Ministry ever has (at least that I’m aware of). Though Ministry is less musically varied I like their music more – I am not a dance music fan and prefer music that is closer to metal. But I do appreciate a sense of humour and, to the extent that Ministry has a sense of humour, it’s not particularly explicit. These guys, on the other hand, well they are pretty obvious that they aren’t entirely serious. And I like that.

If I gave the Ministry record 9/10 I think I have to give this 9/10 too.