Speaking of songs that rock, I wish I understood why I love Ministry as much as I do. Well, I guess I should qualify this. I love Ministry circa 1988-1993, and, in particular, Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed or the Way to Suck Eggs (known as KEOANAHOAG to the cool kids that listened to WFNX based on the non-english title printed on the CD/cassette’s spine). There are just too many almost perfect industrial songs on the album, whether it be “Just One Fix” and its sample from Sid & Nancy, N.W.O. turning Elder Bush’s words around on themselves, “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” – the possibly best industrial song ever written – and of course, “Scarecrow”. That song, today’s iPod Roulette Spin, would be an ideal song for a post-apocalyptic robot-centered sci-fi movie trailer, with lots of crushing, explosions and generally unpleasant things occurring. It builds like a thunderstorm, rumbling closer and closer to the listener until it gets fully unleashed. The song proceeds to crank out for a full eight and a half minutes, with Al Jorgensen (who, incidentally, is apparently a tiny man) howling lyrics like “staring at the face of condemnation” and “crucified and left in isolation”, it is not exactly Sesame Street fare. However, in the subgenre of epic industrial songs (N.B., I should qualify this here and now before I get inundated with comments – this is all from my knowledge of “pop industrial”, so if I am neglecting the vast ocean of other great industrial songs, I apologize in advance), this one is one of the best along with songs like Nine Inch Nails/Pigface’s “Suck”. Sure, it is ridiculously over the top, but really, so is the whole genre. I don’t have the anger/angst I might have had in high school anymore, but “Scarecrow” is dark, it is evil, and I love it to this day.