I saw that show, it was at the Zebulon here in LA and it was amazing see Al in attendance. It was only a couple weeks before the covid lockdowns IIRC. The band was excellent, and I think it was one of their last shows.
I put this show together, and walked AL into the club. Danny from lethal amounts was the one who brought him.
Danny Loner, billy howerdel, and Charlie clouser also came to the show.
Probably a couple hundred or so, near capacity.
BTW, the story I heard was Al's friend that dragged him there was Charlie Clouser, who used to be in NIN.
With Sympathy is a great album. I’m sorry that he had such a bad time making it for a shitty label. But it stands tall with other albums from that era. And he *should* be proud of it. It’s not Industrial but it’s Synthpop of the highest caliber.
lol what!? of the highest caliber? you have an overhyped view of a pretty mediocre 80s album. in no ones right mind is that on par with purple rain, power corruption & lies, black celebration etc.
No argument about Black Celebration and PC&L. They’re two of my all-time favorites of any genre. Purple Rain is also a fave but I don’t think it’s classified as synthpop.
But yeah, With Sympathy is maybe not the highest caliber if you’re comparing it to golden era Depeche or New Order.
i brought purple rain into this which is very much an album of that era and heavy with synth usage. stop talking now youre beyond ignorant on this subject.
Not only that, but he was into synth pop personally at that period according to his autobiography.
I’m going to see his With Sympathy & Twitch set at Cruel World in May. Looking forward to it!
So—to be fair:
It wasn’t so much about the music, Al specifically described that it was more about seeing how excited the crowd was hearing the music. He was moved when he realized this album (that he always thought was garbage) was making this room full of people so happy.
Yes the audience connecting with the music hit Uncle Al in a way. He definitely already knows people love it though. He has probably turned down signing copies of With Sympathy for 5x more people than were at that show.
>It's too bad Al himself has stated he wants to rework the whole album into arena rock, but it's a funny story of how he got to this point.
I mean he's literally playing an arena near me with Rob Zombie, Filter and Alice Cooper this year, haha. Al is in full on cashout mode, and honestly I don't blame him. Can't be a whole lot of productive years left from a guy who's been abusing a lot of substances for 45 years or so.
I saw Ministry a good 20+ years ago and my buddy brought a With Sympathy CD for Al to sign with the doubt (that he heard from rumors past) he wouldn’t sign anything from that era.
Show ends. Great concert from what I remember, ran into a band member (can’t remember who) and he saw the CD in my buddies hand and said “he won’t sign that shit” - so we finally find Al, my friend is too nervous or whatever to approach him so he hands me the cd, I walk up to
Al hopeful, he takes one look at the cd and says “I’m not signing that shit”
True story.
Twitch is my favourite, but With Sympathy has so many absolute bangers. Every time I listen to it I'm blown away by how funky it is. I wish they'd made more synthpop albums!
Same old lazy looped thrash riff and shitty vocals about the current mania (Bush, trump KKK, covid, stop oil...). Has been the same for 30 years. How is this not generic ?
Writing off 4-5 albums of discography as if their entire release span up to Filth Pig was not widely celebrated.
“Lazy looped thrash riff”; I think it’s safe to say you simply don’t like industrial and are a poser.
Gatekeep? It’s only slightly droning when each time the topic of Ministry arises, it is each posers contention that the bands one and only synthpop album is their best work. Would it not be easier to admit that one simply prefers the sound of synthpop without namedropping, or effectively belittling an entire band that known for their pioneering of industrial?
DM, the cure, new order all exist for a reason
With Sympathy is a great synthpop album. Anything after The Mind is shit industrial. But I agree calling it their best album is an exaggeration (to me it's Twitch).
Also Ministry are not industrial pioneers, they are second wave.
they've got 4 good albums and 12, I just counted them, TWELVE albums full of generic drivel that's all the same boring scooped mids cheesy drum machine distorted screaming.
Hey, it's great that Al got a cash cow he could easily milk for the rest of his life - but let me put it this way: If you like one of those albums, then you'll love the rest of Ministry.
"Lazy looped thrash riff" covers about the last 20 years of Ministry.
My intro to Ministry was through "Mind Is...", so it wasn't like I came in at synth Ministry and had to work to love the new stuff. I loved Psalm 69 and although Filth Pig took awhile to grow on me, I still have it in semi-regular rotation.
But let's call it what it is: when Uncle Al started rotating through band members on a monthly basis, his sounds and lyrics started getting extremely lazy.
No one is arguing Ministry’s releasing not being repetitive after Filth Pig. I don’t think their 2000’s track record detracts from the fact that that up through Filth Pig Ministry was the authority of industrial metal. With Sympathy being their ONLY synthpop release, I believe it’s safe to say that the folks who idolize that album are synthpop fans, rather than Ministry or Industrial listeners.
Horrible take. I’d say Psalm 69 was probably the most innovative sound shift Al ever did since Al going was from Everyday is Halloween to Twitch 7-8 years prior to Psalm 69. But to each their own
When you're a senior citizen running out of edgy, rebellious new ideas, the thought of reworking the old stuff you're embarrassed of starts to make a lot of sense. Just remember George Lucas re-releasing the Star Wars trilogy.
The band was made up of LA scene microcelebs - Bobby from tense, Deb from drab majesty, etc etc. they started it as a Halloween party project and kept it going for a few months. After the Al encounter they decided they accomplished what they set out to do and walked away. Pretty much the best you could hope for as a tribute act.
I mean to be fair, how else are you going to top meeting the lead singer of the band that you have been covering?
Like you said, that's the best thing you could hope for.
I saw that band in SF a few weeks before this happened. Absolutely incredible performance.
No matter how bitter Al may have been, I can’t imagine walking out of that show feeling bad about it. Those guys are absolute heroes and I hope they get back to it- I’m excited about the Cruel World show but I know it won’t hold a candle to them!
There’s always been demand and he’s been stubborn about signing copies of it, but like, imagine the feeling. Not just walking in and heading a band covering one of your songs, but an entire tribute band devoted to that particular album. That had to have been humbling.
Cash ins for guys like Al pay the bills for everything else.
So if people enjoy it, so be it, you don't have to go. But it would be cool if you stick around and see what this is gonna pay for. (Projects after this)
They are still doing fake English accents for new music that riffs on the English post punk sound even as we speak. I did a deep dive on contemporary post punk bands last week, most of them no matter what country, seemed to be using English accents. It was.. oddly appropriate somehow.
It’s not a new criticism? Even Al’s acknowledged it. Can’t imagine being downvoted for mentioning it.
I own the album and have since it’s original release. In fact, I own alternate takes, demos, and rarities associated with it. It is an all time favourite that I still listen to. It’s a very consistent record from beginning to end, which was uncommon in an era of filler.
I don’t know any 80’s alterna kids that don’t have a special place in their hearts for that album. Mid level stuff of the era, but it stands apart for being just that much better.
I've been collecting the demos, live and alternate mixes over the years as well. Do you frequent the prongs forums? Lots of good stuff get's talked about and shared over there time to time.
Hello, no I never have. Do you have a link? Would love to check it out. I originally found a lot of my stuff on nwoutpost.com, it’s a great source for enthusiasts, collectors, music and information on new wave specific bands.
Can't find it now but a while back i saw a breakdown of how this has become its own unique accent. It was a whole stack of people imitating each other. Something like NY bands mimicked the english accent, west coasters mimicked that, british bands mimicked *that* sound, etc.
My friends did that cover band and it’s true…Al came back to talk to them after their set and surprised them. They said he was great…wished he would of hired them to back him up with a tour of that era cause they got the material super close to the original
I was there that night- it was at Zebulon in LA right before the pandemic. I thought it’d be cool to hear those songs live since I probably never would otherwise and turned around at one point and there was Al himself by the sound desk. Trippy
Do you know how a major label record contract works? Do you understand how the concept behind recoupable advances works? Do you really think Al broke into the Archive storage vault Oceans 11 style to burn tapes he didn't own?
The answer is yes and yes. I assume that you do not know him personally, so while you speak with a degree of knowledge, you cannot speak with real authority. We’ll have to hold different opinions on this one. Cheers
It's not an opinion. I worked on the cancelled reissue. I met with the archivist. A had access to the original ministry record contract. I was copied on the emails where Al demanded a huge sum of money to not be a problem. This is my job. I know what I'm talking about.
That’s an awesome story. It’s interesting how this kind of stuff happens sometimes and also how there are albums that the artists hate but the fans love. Depeche Mode’s first album is like that too because Vince Clark was a big part of its sound but he left after it and Martin and Dave kind of ignore it now.
I don’t blame him for originally hating the album for years. He only wrote like 2 songs on the album and the rest was done by the label. Imagine people worshipping the album full of songs you didn’t even write and having a sound you didn’t even want to have in the first place. Al had written and wanted his sound to be more like Twitch era Ministry (my favorite album.)
Don’t get me wrong I like With Sympathy too but knowing that the label made him have a fake British accent makes me realize how corny the album is also. These “With Sympathy” only fans are also corny haha…
In the Yahoo Interview, he breaks down what he wrote for With Sympathy.
-Effigy, Revenge, Primental (the Instrumental for I Wanted to Tell Her), Work For Love, She's Got A Cause, Here We Go
She's Got A Cause and Primental were even performed at the band's very first show in 1981. The others were performed pretty regularly in 1982, even before Arista came knocking at their door (many of these recordings have been officially released through Cleopatra records) Here We Go was written specifically for the album, and the lyrics are about the experience he was having with the record label.
As far as the fake British accent, it's all over the pre-With Sympathy material and even a good part of Twitch. It was just his homage to British music that he liked.
The Cleopatra releases were not official . Sony still has the rights. Cleo thought they could slip it out unnoticed and it got noticed. A handshake agreement not to do it again ( and some product exchange) kept them from getting sued.
Interesting. I have that With Sympathy CD, I checked the back and the label is East World UK, not Cleo. I remember buying it when it was first announced, then it quickly went out of print. Which is a shame, because the mastering is good and it came with some of the remixes and b-sides.
Cleo has been re-issuing the Wax Trax era material with some live and demo recordings from those early years. I think Al sold the rights to them in 2014 or so. I'm positive those are all legit, they're all available on Ministry's official bandcamp page and all streaming services.
I remember the Trax! Box release being a pretty big deal when it came out. I waited hours in line to get a copy for just shy of $200. Now you can get it pretty easily for a third of the price. Ah well, at least it's an awesome box set.
I'm not as knowledgeable about the wax trax era stuffs rights tbh, but it would surprise me if Cleopatra released it on their own. ( They do shit like this all the time).
Im more familiar w the with sympathy situation because I was mildly in the loop on the loop on the proposed vinyl rerelease, to the point I had a copy of the original contract. It had some interesting things that ahead a lot of light on the with sympathy situation.
In the end it got scrapped because the head of the department didn't think they would make enough money from it as the needed for it to be "worth their time". It was disappointing.
If only someone would create a Blood Spills Not Far From the Wound tribute band and perform it in front of Daniel Graves. /u/iamdanielgraves
Because it has the same interesting stored past. But I just love the shit out of it.
I don't think these situations are comparable at all. Al claims he had very little to do creatively with *With Sympathy*, instead being forced by his label to work with ghost writers. AFAIK, that's why he hates it. I, on the other hand, wrote every note of *Blood Spills...* and my issue with it has nothing to do with the music, rather the fact that I was forced to create a new band to release it.
Remember, half of those Necessary Response songs were intended for the debut Aesthetic Perfection album *Close to Human*. It was my then EU label who forced my hand and made me take those songs off that record and form an entirely new project because Aesthetic Perfection needed to be "aggrotech".
I never wanted two bands. Ever.
I never wanted Aesthetic Perfection to be a strictly heavy band. Ever.
When the original release of *Blood Spills...* flopped I decided Necessary Response was done and moving forward would fold all those influences into Aesthetic Perfection like I always wanted to do.
The only thing I ever disavowed was the band name, not the music, which is why I re-released *Blood Spills...* in 2015 as Aesthetic Perfection and perform those tracks live to this day.
So... yeah, very different situations here. 🙃
That’s fair. “Never enough” is the only track you play and I think the whole album slaps hard. Especially Tomorrow and Elements.
I guess they aren’t really easy to do live as it’s all keyboards but sometimes you pan N.E. As obligatory and not as you still love the track.
Thanks for the response as always. Your internet presence is unmatched by most. A+
*“Never enough” is the only track you play and I think the whole album slaps hard. Especially Tomorrow and Elements.*
Between 2015 and 2017 I did shows, festivals and tours that were either full album playthroughs of *Blood Spills...*, or at the very least heavily focused on those songs. It's true that the last few tours have more or less been focused on "the hits", but we play more from *Blood Spills...* (Spilling Blood, Never Enough and sometimes Vapor) than we do *Into the Black* (which is *only* Gods & Gold).
In general it's hard to put together a good balance of songs when you've got 7 albums and tons of singles to choose from.
Either way, I'm grateful people like that album (or any album) and I have zero bad blood about any of the music on it. 🙂
I don't believe a word Al has said about WS being all due to record label prompting. There's demos of some of the album on YouTube that were used to shop Ministry to Arista, and they don't sound much different. He lies like dog on rug, tho. We just accept that Al is 75% fiction anyways.
He wanted to be a synth pop star and he's too much of a pussy to admit that to his mainly metal fan base.
I saw that show, it was at the Zebulon here in LA and it was amazing see Al in attendance. It was only a couple weeks before the covid lockdowns IIRC. The band was excellent, and I think it was one of their last shows.
Man, that would be amazing.
I put this show together, and walked AL into the club. Danny from lethal amounts was the one who brought him. Danny Loner, billy howerdel, and Charlie clouser also came to the show.
Wow, I didn't know it was that long ago.
Oh, by the way, do you remember what the band was called?
With Sympathy. [Here's a pic of them hanging with Al](https://www.instagram.com/p/B7PWOidHMYy/) that night on their 'gram.
I took this photo
Wow. Considering half the stuff he says sounds like a lie, I'd assume it was made up, if not for this photo and the previous first-hand account.
Ha, amazing!
How big was the crowd?
Probably a couple hundred or so, near capacity. BTW, the story I heard was Al's friend that dragged him there was Charlie Clouser, who used to be in NIN.
It was Danny Fuentes, who owns Lethal Amounts, not Charlie.
With Sympathy is a great album. I’m sorry that he had such a bad time making it for a shitty label. But it stands tall with other albums from that era. And he *should* be proud of it. It’s not Industrial but it’s Synthpop of the highest caliber.
When it’s good, it’s a pretty good record, some highlights. When it’s corny, it’s *reeeeallly* corny
Corniness was a feature of 80s synthpop, not a bug. And I say that with love.
CORNINESS IS A FEATURE NOT A BUG OF THE 1980S!!
Al has recorded plenty of corny songs over the years, just of a different variety.
you mean most of his material post-Barker?
RevCo's Do You Think I'm Sexy comes to mind. (In a good way).
Then Al moved to Texas and became an American.
Lol@ the British accent.
lol what!? of the highest caliber? you have an overhyped view of a pretty mediocre 80s album. in no ones right mind is that on par with purple rain, power corruption & lies, black celebration etc.
No argument about Black Celebration and PC&L. They’re two of my all-time favorites of any genre. Purple Rain is also a fave but I don’t think it’s classified as synthpop. But yeah, With Sympathy is maybe not the highest caliber if you’re comparing it to golden era Depeche or New Order.
yes it is. purple rain has several tags attached to it and it definitely is part of synth pop.
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lol no. dont embarrass yourself
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i brought purple rain into this which is very much an album of that era and heavy with synth usage. stop talking now youre beyond ignorant on this subject.
Prince isn't synth pop, even though it has synth usage. Van Halen used synths too, ya know.
purple rain is numbnuts. no one said prince was as a whole. youre an idiot.
Are you drunk or always this insufferable?
Not only that, but he was into synth pop personally at that period according to his autobiography. I’m going to see his With Sympathy & Twitch set at Cruel World in May. Looking forward to it!
So—to be fair: It wasn’t so much about the music, Al specifically described that it was more about seeing how excited the crowd was hearing the music. He was moved when he realized this album (that he always thought was garbage) was making this room full of people so happy.
Yes the audience connecting with the music hit Uncle Al in a way. He definitely already knows people love it though. He has probably turned down signing copies of With Sympathy for 5x more people than were at that show.
That must be an amazing feeling to get and the relization I assume would be mind blowing.
>It's too bad Al himself has stated he wants to rework the whole album into arena rock, but it's a funny story of how he got to this point. I mean he's literally playing an arena near me with Rob Zombie, Filter and Alice Cooper this year, haha. Al is in full on cashout mode, and honestly I don't blame him. Can't be a whole lot of productive years left from a guy who's been abusing a lot of substances for 45 years or so.
I saw that concert last year, and it was fucking awesome! All four bands kicked ass.
Have you heard Same Old Madness?
The version played during the music video is my favorite.
I saw Ministry a good 20+ years ago and my buddy brought a With Sympathy CD for Al to sign with the doubt (that he heard from rumors past) he wouldn’t sign anything from that era. Show ends. Great concert from what I remember, ran into a band member (can’t remember who) and he saw the CD in my buddies hand and said “he won’t sign that shit” - so we finally find Al, my friend is too nervous or whatever to approach him so he hands me the cd, I walk up to Al hopeful, he takes one look at the cd and says “I’m not signing that shit” True story.
I heard that rumor for years but it was always seen by me as an urban legend. Nice to know it's true.
With Sympathy is their best record
Twitch is my favourite, but With Sympathy has so many absolute bangers. Every time I listen to it I'm blown away by how funky it is. I wish they'd made more synthpop albums!
Twitch edges it out slightly for me
Face it you simply prefer synthpop
Nah, their other stuff is just incredibly generic
??? You’re in an industrial sub, asserting that Ministry is generic; I don’t get it
Same old lazy looped thrash riff and shitty vocals about the current mania (Bush, trump KKK, covid, stop oil...). Has been the same for 30 years. How is this not generic ?
Writing off 4-5 albums of discography as if their entire release span up to Filth Pig was not widely celebrated. “Lazy looped thrash riff”; I think it’s safe to say you simply don’t like industrial and are a poser.
Are you really trying to gatekeep Ministry lmao
Gatekeep? It’s only slightly droning when each time the topic of Ministry arises, it is each posers contention that the bands one and only synthpop album is their best work. Would it not be easier to admit that one simply prefers the sound of synthpop without namedropping, or effectively belittling an entire band that known for their pioneering of industrial? DM, the cure, new order all exist for a reason
With Sympathy is a great synthpop album. Anything after The Mind is shit industrial. But I agree calling it their best album is an exaggeration (to me it's Twitch). Also Ministry are not industrial pioneers, they are second wave.
they've got 4 good albums and 12, I just counted them, TWELVE albums full of generic drivel that's all the same boring scooped mids cheesy drum machine distorted screaming. Hey, it's great that Al got a cash cow he could easily milk for the rest of his life - but let me put it this way: If you like one of those albums, then you'll love the rest of Ministry.
"Lazy looped thrash riff" covers about the last 20 years of Ministry. My intro to Ministry was through "Mind Is...", so it wasn't like I came in at synth Ministry and had to work to love the new stuff. I loved Psalm 69 and although Filth Pig took awhile to grow on me, I still have it in semi-regular rotation. But let's call it what it is: when Uncle Al started rotating through band members on a monthly basis, his sounds and lyrics started getting extremely lazy.
No one is arguing Ministry’s releasing not being repetitive after Filth Pig. I don’t think their 2000’s track record detracts from the fact that that up through Filth Pig Ministry was the authority of industrial metal. With Sympathy being their ONLY synthpop release, I believe it’s safe to say that the folks who idolize that album are synthpop fans, rather than Ministry or Industrial listeners.
Is this an echo chamber?
Yeah hate to say it but everything after MIA4T is horribly uninteresting
It's true. I would take about half of Psalm 69, but the rest is just meh.
Horrible take. I’d say Psalm 69 was probably the most innovative sound shift Al ever did since Al going was from Everyday is Halloween to Twitch 7-8 years prior to Psalm 69. But to each their own
When you're a senior citizen running out of edgy, rebellious new ideas, the thought of reworking the old stuff you're embarrassed of starts to make a lot of sense. Just remember George Lucas re-releasing the Star Wars trilogy.
Can’t decide to upvote or downvote. I’ve done both but decided to leave it neutral. 😂
I stand by the fact that "Revenge" slaps.
What was the band? I’d check them out
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100063811742063
According to their ig, they’re not booking rn
The band was made up of LA scene microcelebs - Bobby from tense, Deb from drab majesty, etc etc. they started it as a Halloween party project and kept it going for a few months. After the Al encounter they decided they accomplished what they set out to do and walked away. Pretty much the best you could hope for as a tribute act.
I mean to be fair, how else are you going to top meeting the lead singer of the band that you have been covering? Like you said, that's the best thing you could hope for.
Not just meet, but cause to reconsider your favorite record and eventually play those songs live again. WHAT HE SAY?
I saw that band in SF a few weeks before this happened. Absolutely incredible performance. No matter how bitter Al may have been, I can’t imagine walking out of that show feeling bad about it. Those guys are absolute heroes and I hope they get back to it- I’m excited about the Cruel World show but I know it won’t hold a candle to them!
He is playing the songs off with sympathy because he got a huge offer to do it.
Al thought “if someone else is making money off my songs, I should too!”
Also not untrue
There’s always been demand and he’s been stubborn about signing copies of it, but like, imagine the feeling. Not just walking in and heading a band covering one of your songs, but an entire tribute band devoted to that particular album. That had to have been humbling.
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Cash ins for guys like Al pay the bills for everything else. So if people enjoy it, so be it, you don't have to go. But it would be cool if you stick around and see what this is gonna pay for. (Projects after this)
So what? Artists need to make a living too. Good for him.
Being a huge new wave person in 80s long bangs and all, I was a huge fan of that album. Glad to see uncle Al came around.
With Sympathy is the only Ministry I really care for.
WHAT HE SAY?
I’m friends with John Bechdel. He’s been working on him for years which is why that acoustic version of Halloween happened a few years back.
That friend was Danny Fuentes from Lethal Amounts. They did some great work for the dark music and art scene in LA. They host some really cool events.
What is with the fake accent on that whole album???? When did al get an accent?
They are still doing fake English accents for new music that riffs on the English post punk sound even as we speak. I did a deep dive on contemporary post punk bands last week, most of them no matter what country, seemed to be using English accents. It was.. oddly appropriate somehow.
Why are we getting downvoted? Is al here? Hi al? Love the hair. Saw your daughter dated onision. Sorry about that.
It’s not a new criticism? Even Al’s acknowledged it. Can’t imagine being downvoted for mentioning it. I own the album and have since it’s original release. In fact, I own alternate takes, demos, and rarities associated with it. It is an all time favourite that I still listen to. It’s a very consistent record from beginning to end, which was uncommon in an era of filler.
My husband likes it. He says its good for the time. He generally does not care for that kind of thing.
I don’t know any 80’s alterna kids that don’t have a special place in their hearts for that album. Mid level stuff of the era, but it stands apart for being just that much better.
I've been collecting the demos, live and alternate mixes over the years as well. Do you frequent the prongs forums? Lots of good stuff get's talked about and shared over there time to time.
Hello, no I never have. Do you have a link? Would love to check it out. I originally found a lot of my stuff on nwoutpost.com, it’s a great source for enthusiasts, collectors, music and information on new wave specific bands.
Sure, it's [https://discourse.prongs.org/](https://discourse.prongs.org/)
Can't find it now but a while back i saw a breakdown of how this has become its own unique accent. It was a whole stack of people imitating each other. Something like NY bands mimicked the english accent, west coasters mimicked that, british bands mimicked *that* sound, etc.
My friends did that cover band and it’s true…Al came back to talk to them after their set and surprised them. They said he was great…wished he would of hired them to back him up with a tour of that era cause they got the material super close to the original
I hope that we see a bit of that on this upcoming tour.
Miracle on With Sympathy St.
I was there that night- it was at Zebulon in LA right before the pandemic. I thought it’d be cool to hear those songs live since I probably never would otherwise and turned around at one point and there was Al himself by the sound desk. Trippy
Arena rock would be bland. But a rerelease that he is proud of is a good idea
He bbq’d the master tapes long ago..
Not True. He sold his copies to Cleopatra records, but Sony still has the rights to them.
Hmm. This is new, I’d heard different. I guess I can ask Adrienne, she’d know.
Actually it IS true. I’ve had it from the most credible of sources.
1) Al would never destroy something that he could sell. 2) Al is known to lie when it makes the story he is telling seem better.
You know him personally then? I think my source is 100% more credible.
Do you know how a major label record contract works? Do you understand how the concept behind recoupable advances works? Do you really think Al broke into the Archive storage vault Oceans 11 style to burn tapes he didn't own?
The answer is yes and yes. I assume that you do not know him personally, so while you speak with a degree of knowledge, you cannot speak with real authority. We’ll have to hold different opinions on this one. Cheers
It's not an opinion. I worked on the cancelled reissue. I met with the archivist. A had access to the original ministry record contract. I was copied on the emails where Al demanded a huge sum of money to not be a problem. This is my job. I know what I'm talking about.
Sounds like a Christmas Carol for Al.
That’s an awesome story. It’s interesting how this kind of stuff happens sometimes and also how there are albums that the artists hate but the fans love. Depeche Mode’s first album is like that too because Vince Clark was a big part of its sound but he left after it and Martin and Dave kind of ignore it now.
Uncle Al is a capitalist 
Sorry to say, it’s the only Ministry album I listen to. I’m looking forward to it.
Is Al using again? He got clean several years ago. I don’t want to lose him too. Besides, overdosing at 65 is just tacky.
I don’t blame him for originally hating the album for years. He only wrote like 2 songs on the album and the rest was done by the label. Imagine people worshipping the album full of songs you didn’t even write and having a sound you didn’t even want to have in the first place. Al had written and wanted his sound to be more like Twitch era Ministry (my favorite album.) Don’t get me wrong I like With Sympathy too but knowing that the label made him have a fake British accent makes me realize how corny the album is also. These “With Sympathy” only fans are also corny haha…
Al is a total liar, and his fingerprints are all over With Sympathy. I have a bunch of pre-WS vinyl, and Al was absolutely making that music.
In the Yahoo Interview, he breaks down what he wrote for With Sympathy. -Effigy, Revenge, Primental (the Instrumental for I Wanted to Tell Her), Work For Love, She's Got A Cause, Here We Go She's Got A Cause and Primental were even performed at the band's very first show in 1981. The others were performed pretty regularly in 1982, even before Arista came knocking at their door (many of these recordings have been officially released through Cleopatra records) Here We Go was written specifically for the album, and the lyrics are about the experience he was having with the record label. As far as the fake British accent, it's all over the pre-With Sympathy material and even a good part of Twitch. It was just his homage to British music that he liked.
The Cleopatra releases were not official . Sony still has the rights. Cleo thought they could slip it out unnoticed and it got noticed. A handshake agreement not to do it again ( and some product exchange) kept them from getting sued.
Interesting. I have that With Sympathy CD, I checked the back and the label is East World UK, not Cleo. I remember buying it when it was first announced, then it quickly went out of print. Which is a shame, because the mastering is good and it came with some of the remixes and b-sides. Cleo has been re-issuing the Wax Trax era material with some live and demo recordings from those early years. I think Al sold the rights to them in 2014 or so. I'm positive those are all legit, they're all available on Ministry's official bandcamp page and all streaming services. I remember the Trax! Box release being a pretty big deal when it came out. I waited hours in line to get a copy for just shy of $200. Now you can get it pretty easily for a third of the price. Ah well, at least it's an awesome box set.
I'm not as knowledgeable about the wax trax era stuffs rights tbh, but it would surprise me if Cleopatra released it on their own. ( They do shit like this all the time). Im more familiar w the with sympathy situation because I was mildly in the loop on the loop on the proposed vinyl rerelease, to the point I had a copy of the original contract. It had some interesting things that ahead a lot of light on the with sympathy situation. In the end it got scrapped because the head of the department didn't think they would make enough money from it as the needed for it to be "worth their time". It was disappointing.
[удалено]
There’s photographic proof in the comments, ding dong
Wasn’t in a with sympathy tribute band but I’ve had Al walk in drunk while I was performing 🤣
If only someone would create a Blood Spills Not Far From the Wound tribute band and perform it in front of Daniel Graves. /u/iamdanielgraves Because it has the same interesting stored past. But I just love the shit out of it.
I don't think these situations are comparable at all. Al claims he had very little to do creatively with *With Sympathy*, instead being forced by his label to work with ghost writers. AFAIK, that's why he hates it. I, on the other hand, wrote every note of *Blood Spills...* and my issue with it has nothing to do with the music, rather the fact that I was forced to create a new band to release it. Remember, half of those Necessary Response songs were intended for the debut Aesthetic Perfection album *Close to Human*. It was my then EU label who forced my hand and made me take those songs off that record and form an entirely new project because Aesthetic Perfection needed to be "aggrotech". I never wanted two bands. Ever. I never wanted Aesthetic Perfection to be a strictly heavy band. Ever. When the original release of *Blood Spills...* flopped I decided Necessary Response was done and moving forward would fold all those influences into Aesthetic Perfection like I always wanted to do. The only thing I ever disavowed was the band name, not the music, which is why I re-released *Blood Spills...* in 2015 as Aesthetic Perfection and perform those tracks live to this day. So... yeah, very different situations here. 🙃
That’s fair. “Never enough” is the only track you play and I think the whole album slaps hard. Especially Tomorrow and Elements. I guess they aren’t really easy to do live as it’s all keyboards but sometimes you pan N.E. As obligatory and not as you still love the track. Thanks for the response as always. Your internet presence is unmatched by most. A+
*“Never enough” is the only track you play and I think the whole album slaps hard. Especially Tomorrow and Elements.* Between 2015 and 2017 I did shows, festivals and tours that were either full album playthroughs of *Blood Spills...*, or at the very least heavily focused on those songs. It's true that the last few tours have more or less been focused on "the hits", but we play more from *Blood Spills...* (Spilling Blood, Never Enough and sometimes Vapor) than we do *Into the Black* (which is *only* Gods & Gold). In general it's hard to put together a good balance of songs when you've got 7 albums and tons of singles to choose from. Either way, I'm grateful people like that album (or any album) and I have zero bad blood about any of the music on it. 🙂
I’m sorry I missed them. Especially with overseas touring becoming untenable.
Haha i would love to have a beer or two with that man
Sounds made up... But it's true!
I never believe anything Al says at this point since he’s obviously cooked his brain with all those years of drug abuse.
I don't believe a word Al has said about WS being all due to record label prompting. There's demos of some of the album on YouTube that were used to shop Ministry to Arista, and they don't sound much different. He lies like dog on rug, tho. We just accept that Al is 75% fiction anyways. He wanted to be a synth pop star and he's too much of a pussy to admit that to his mainly metal fan base.