In 1993, I tracked down a copy of the "Burning Inside" single from Ministry's masterpiece, 1989's The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste. The single boasted the 12" remixes for both the title track and "Thieves", as well as a fantastic cover of Skinny Puppy's "Smothered Hope". I listened to the remixes over and over, trying to figure out how they were different than the originals. Beyond "Thieves" being slightly longer, I never found any significant difference between the remixes and the original album cuts. Rantology, Ministry's 25th anniversary collection, is a hodgepodge release that, besides being an album-length diatribe against the Bush administration, features one new song, three live Ministry classics, three recent album tracks, and eight remixes, and sadly it indicates that at this point in his career, Al Jourgensen still hasn't gotten a handle on the remix.
At some point in their career, possibly when Paul Barker left, Ministry stopped being an industrial band and started being a boring thrash band. Album opener, "No W (Redux)", proves this within the first few guitar notes. The song, a rehash of "N.W.O." from 1992's Psalm 69, is essentially the same as the version that originally appeared on Fat Wreck Chords' Rock Against Bush comp. The President opens with the campaign standard, "I'm George W. Bush, and I approve of this message," before the track launches into a cinematic clash of keyboard-strings, operatic vocals, and weak programmed drums. Eventually, Bush quotes some scripture and the song tears into run-of-the-mill open-E riffing accented by the occasional programmed horn and string burst, all of which here sound cheap and generic.
"No W (Redux)" sets the tone for the remixes on this collection, which barely sound different than the originals. "N.W.O. (Update mix)" features new samples of the current Bush replacing many of the GHWB's quotes from the original, but nothing else appears different. "Stigmata (Update mix)" has been polished off to have a slicker, more artificial guitar tone that fits well with the band's apparent devotion to fake instruments, and the slightly altered vocal rhythm in the verses only brings the song down further. We also get "updated" or alternate mixes of four other tracks, including "Jesus Built My Hotrod", all of which sound more or less the same as the originals. "Unsung" is the only track here that seems to have actually benefited from its alternate mix. Originally on 2003's barely listenable Animositisomina, this version has been beefed up with bagpipes and other added noise, and it actually features a melody in the verses instead of Jourgensen's incessant barking.
The remainder of Rantology are older tracks either directly from the last two Ministry albums or in live form. For live tracks we get "Thieves", "Psalm 69", and "The Fall", all from 2002's Sphinctour. Rantology doesn't work as a greatest hits package, as it leaves out most of the band's best, not to mention most recognizable, tracks. Furthermore, it doesn't work as a remix album because the remixes are uninspired. Jourgensen helped introduce many people to industrial back in the early 90s, but on Rantology, the dark, unnerving tone of his earlier work has long since been traded in for the uninspired rantings of a cranky musician trying too hard regain his prominence.
