Land of Rape and Honey

Ministry: Alain Jourgensen (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Paul Barker (bass, programming, background vocals).
Additional personnel: Chris Connelly (vocals); William Reiflin (drums).
Producers: Hermes Pan, Eddie Echo, Hupo Luxa.
Engineers include: Alain Jourgensen, Steve Spapperi, Julian Herzfeld.
Recorded at Chicago Trax Studios, Chicago, Illinois, and Southern Studios, London, England.
The Land of Rape and Honey represented Ministry's stylistic breakthrough, combining assaultive percussion, samples, synths, and (sometimes) crunching guitars with distorted, barking vocals. For all the emphasis on the group's metal/industrial fusion, it's really only the first three (and best) tracks on Rape and Honey -- "Stigmata," "The Missing," and "Deity" -- that employ guitars extensively. The remainder of the album merely suggests heavy metal aggression through its electronic and sampled elements; it is far more industrial in feel, even though it's just as dark. Ministry was the industrial band that, more than any other, appealed to metal fans, and it was The Land of Rape and Honey that began to lay claim to that status. ~ Steve Huey