Customer Reviews

In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There is no live CD in existence from any artist anywhere that is as good as this one. Ministry sound better live than other artists sound in a studio. This CD is brutally good.

But more to the point:

This CD is just brutal.

This is the most intense CD in existence, period. Studio or live. Metal, hardcore, thrash, punk, techno, eletronica, industrial, classical: there is no more intense music on the face of the earth. Al J. in the big hat makes Trent Reznor look like a chipmunk.

How to cause a heart attack: 1. Wire your CD player's L and R channels through some nice marshall or peavey amps. 2. Crank them very high. 3. Insert In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up and hit play.

Your windows will break, your pets will die, your neighbors will melt and you and your friends will soon fall into a pulsating heap on the ground, stimulants notwithstanding.

I saw Ministry with KMFDM in Atlanta, Georgia at the Masquerade during the "Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste" tour from which this was recorded. ( Although this was not the date recorded.) Before heroin ruined the band. A great concert this was. Truly amazing, genre - defying stuff, it spits in the face of all that came before it, and all that would follow. Heavy metal , but not in a dumb hair-metal kinda way. Industrial/dance, but not in a techno-gay-bar kinda way. It's the porridge that Goldilocks chose. Ministry here are at their peak, as far as live performance goes. And it SOUNDS good, unlike some live albums you come across. Utter perfection.

I have blown out the speakers of two cars playing this CD on 10. I have had it since it was released and it still makes my ears bleed. I have told my family that this CD will be in my disc player (ratcheted over to Stigmata) when I drive my car off a bridge. Time will stop and I will float suspended in the air forever...

"In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up" is one of my few favorite live CDs, by one of my favorite industrial bands: Ministry. There's not a track on here I don't like. Well, there are only six tracks, but that's still a rarity for me. I generally don't like live CDs at all.

Set during Ministry's 1989-90 tour, "In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up" samples all six tracks from two of their following albums: "Land of Rape and Honey" and "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste" (both worth checking out). Most of the songs on here are loud and testerone-driven, with growling vocals and throbbing bass/drums. Some others are a bit slower, though they do eventually rise to ear-shattering levels as well, i.e., my favorite: #3 ("So What"), a long-drawn-out 11 minute and 30 second apathetic anthem.

Another favorite is track #6 ("Stigmata"), where Al Jourgensen rants for about a minute near the end with [swearing at]so-and-so and the other (mostly political leaders, but I'm sure it offends most people). This last track ends with the audience chanting "Ministry", but if you listen carefully, you can hear some guy chanting obscenities in the background instead, which is at least one reason for the parental advisory on the front cover, not to mention the obscenities spewed from Al himself. If you're anti-censorship, then you'll probably want to participate in the "just say no to censorship" campaign on the inside of the booklet, by removing and mailing the parental advisory logo on the front cover "along with a letter supporting your First Amendment rights, to your congressional representatives and/or local legislators." Whether you decide to do this or not (somehow, the title of this CD doesn't exactly call to the more motivated individual), I'd still recommend buying this CD. It's well worth your money.

Before Al Jourgensen became irrelevant and started spending all his time and energy shooting junk, he made this, an incredible album, and one of the best things ever to come out of the industrial genre.

Machine-gun beats, heavy guitars, synthesizers, and drum machines. Those are the basic ingredients, and they have never sounded louder, faster, or better. Even though many musicians have channeled their aggression into loud evil music, none have, or probably ever will, do it better than this. "Thieves" and "Stigmata" are relentless and pounding, "Deity" is a blast of pure hardcore, while the eleven-minute version of "So What" slows the tempo down, but, in a testament to the control and range of the band, does so without losing any intensity or aggression

This album hasn't aged or dated one bit. It still sounds as amazing and thrilling as it did when I first heard it over ten years ago.

The songs on this cd sounds even better than the originals, and the originals sound incredible! I love how Burning inside starts, the guitar teasing you until the drumsticks start clicking, counting down until the full power of that great song bores down on you! and when you hear Stigmata... I didn't think you could beat the version that's on the Land of Rape and Honey, but live?!? Every song sounds great, and the songs from Land and Mind are when Ministry was at it's peak (Psalm 69 was also great)

You shouldn't care about industrial this vs. metal that, this is simply one of the best live cd's ever I just wish they added more songs like You Know What You Are, The Land of Rape and Honey, Flashback, I Prefer, Never Believe, and Breathe.

'In Case...' gives the fans a forty-minute live recording that was taken from the band's 1989-90 U.S. assault.I remember Ministry playing a club in my home town and having to put up a barbed-wire fence in front of the stage.Ouch!Tracks I liked the most were "Deity",the eleven-minute slammin' "So What" and "Stigmata".Notice a couple of things about this CD.First off,these six tunes sound heavier than the original studio versions(of course)and there appears to be two guest vocalists.Pigface's Martin Atkins and Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre.Nice classic industrial metal release.Check it out when you can.

I only kill to know I'm alive. Nothing takes me back to my freshman year(1990) in college like this live album. Every song is excellent. "So what" is the ultimate angst of the eighties and is the focal point of this recording. Respect. Respect...Buy this album. You will never get tired of it.

Ministry sound amazing on this cd,if your a fan who has not bought this,get it right now! Actually you do not have to be a Ministry fan to buy this,one listen and you will be one.It is worth the money,enjoying their great songs,which are longer than their originals,excellent production,excellent sound(Al Jourgenson sounds amazing),excellent band,excellent music.A classic live album from ministry.Their more recent works are as good and also should be bought,sorry MUST be bought.I love Ministry and hope they live forever,otherwise I would be bored with music.Thank you.

THERE HAS NOT BEEN AN ALBUM PRESSED THAT OFFERS MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK THAN THAN THIS ONE. FROM START TO FINISH ALL OF THE BEST MIDDLE ERA MINISTRY. THE VIDEO CAPTURES ALL THE CHAOS AND GLORY. THIS IS WHAT THE APOCALYPSE SHOULD SOUND LIKE.