365 Days of Song Recommendations: March 31

So What—Ministry

If this is a perfect album—and it is—then “So What” is it’s most perfect song.

There is an intelligent ferocity to everything Ministry has done and does, and while early Ministry is too techno and late Ministry is too metal, there was a blissful few albums in the middle where Ministry just did everything sonically right, and in the process, they put industrial music in the dictionary under themselves and closed the book. No one has ever done it better.

Done right, industrial is anarchic, brutally smart, edgy as all get out, and somehow, funky. Al Jourgensen is a witty and dangerous man, and even as Ministry had somewhat passed its musical prime, Jourgensen remained disturbingly vital through the aughts as just about the only musician of repute to actually fully stand up to the Bush era.

But step back a few years, before Jesus and his hotrod, before Filth Pig, before Lollapalooza, and dip into The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste.

This is such a devastating and dangerous album, it’s almost impossible to bear. And yet, it’s also very, very clever.

If industrial music has an anthem, “So What” is it. This is the slow, menacing, apocalyptic call to action that manages to bridge disdain and passion; anarchy and activism…