Music Banter - View Single Post - Bands that Morph over Time: For Better or Worse

Screen13 · 07-26-2014, 06:08 AM

After reading Al's book, and being around at the time, I could understand the morph, and I feel that it was seriously out of a strategy-driven survival as well as America's better reaction to Metal music which he took his sound to and seriously succeeded with as it was that kind of time. It looked like he was trying to keep one step ahead of the scene before he got ran over while still trying to stick to his aims and also shoving away argument-ridden chapters away in order to achieve higher goals.

Check out this early live version of what I feel is the best With Sympathy era song. I'm sure the original With Sympathy era had tougher sounds in mind than the well-produced outcome.

His adventures with Arista were not that happy, and on the Indie side his adventure with Situation Two Records for the "Cold Life" single was not that great either (the original cover gave them an image that was not what they were like). Synth Pop was never looked upon that seriously in the States, and it was easy to chuck the With Sympathy years out the window from a high building drop especially after the separation from Clive Davis' label which possibly wanted more Flock of Seagulls/Thompson Twins style pop out of him than what he seriously wanted (the two aforementioned groups were the only serious New Wave money makers for the label - they had Heaven 17, Icicle Works, The Members and a few others, but in the mind of a Suit, if it was not playing on MTV on heavy rotation, it's a fail and Arista's New Music division stopped around Mid '84).

After parting with Arista, the anger was rising, and you can hear the following video seriously shows it's age how it was being directed. The following video seriously shows it's age, but see at least a part of it and note the year.

The Wax Trax and Twitch years were great, more of what he seriously wanted to do with Synthesizer-dominated music.

Adding aggressive guitars was what did the trick to take Ministry out of Cult Land, which seriously is not a fun place to be when one's a musician of the aim is for a higher place, and by blending in his early music influences (FM Rock Radio was a complete 101 of Guitar music then) with that extra oomph, things finally clicked for his future. This was the decision which inspired Trent Reznor to go full on with Nine Inch Nails' move from being a Pop Wave wanna-be to Pretty Hate Machine to everything else he's done. It was The Late 80's, things were headed towards Metal as New Music turned into a John Hughes Soundtrack Nightmare in The US and those looking for alternatives were headed towards sounds from the Underground Metal scene and there was a major response with the fans, although that kind of move was far more better with Electronic based bands who blended their messages and than Punks (the attempts of Hardcore Punks to Crossover...many fails, many nightmares!) who fumbled around with the sound in an attempt to get better known.

Al formed other bands which kept to being Indie, and I felt that those kept his original music aims alive as Ministry kept on cranking up the amps for Warners at that time. While I felt that while still creating great music, the Metal music sounded more like trying to staying alive by the Late 90's after Filth Pig (although they could have been better...).

I think what I'm trying to say is that it was a natural move for American musicians to go that way at that time, and with Jourgensen, and even Reznor, it was not forced, but more strategic after finding out that it was going to be very difficult to keep the original blueprint as they moved through the music industry in The US. I don't think that playing New Wave Retro Shows with a couple of slightly familiar songs was the way they wanted to go.

07-26-2014, 06:08 AM	#6 (permalink)
Screen13 Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 1,388	After reading Al's book, and being around at the time, I could understand the morph, and I feel that it was seriously out of a strategy-driven survival as well as America's better reaction to Metal music which he took his sound to and seriously succeeded with as it was that kind of time. It looked like he was trying to keep one step ahead of the scene before he got ran over while still trying to stick to his aims and also shoving away argument-ridden chapters away in order to achieve higher goals. Check out this early live version of what I feel is the best With Sympathy era song. I'm sure the original With Sympathy era had tougher sounds in mind than the well-produced outcome. His adventures with Arista were not that happy, and on the Indie side his adventure with Situation Two Records for the "Cold Life" single was not that great either (the original cover gave them an image that was not what they were like). Synth Pop was never looked upon that seriously in the States, and it was easy to chuck the With Sympathy years out the window from a high building drop especially after the separation from Clive Davis' label which possibly wanted more Flock of Seagulls/Thompson Twins style pop out of him than what he seriously wanted (the two aforementioned groups were the only serious New Wave money makers for the label - they had Heaven 17, Icicle Works, The Members and a few others, but in the mind of a Suit, if it was not playing on MTV on heavy rotation, it's a fail and Arista's New Music division stopped around Mid '84). After parting with Arista, the anger was rising, and you can hear the following video seriously shows it's age how it was being directed. The following video seriously shows it's age, but see at least a part of it and note the year. The Wax Trax and Twitch years were great, more of what he seriously wanted to do with Synthesizer-dominated music. Adding aggressive guitars was what did the trick to take Ministry out of Cult Land, which seriously is not a fun place to be when one's a musician of the aim is for a higher place, and by blending in his early music influences (FM Rock Radio was a complete 101 of Guitar music then) with that extra oomph, things finally clicked for his future. This was the decision which inspired Trent Reznor to go full on with Nine Inch Nails' move from being a Pop Wave wanna-be to Pretty Hate Machine to everything else he's done. It was The Late 80's, things were headed towards Metal as New Music turned into a John Hughes Soundtrack Nightmare in The US and those looking for alternatives were headed towards sounds from the Underground Metal scene and there was a major response with the fans, although that kind of move was far more better with Electronic based bands who blended their messages and than Punks (the attempts of Hardcore Punks to Crossover...many fails, many nightmares!) who fumbled around with the sound in an attempt to get better known. Al formed other bands which kept to being Indie, and I felt that those kept his original music aims alive as Ministry kept on cranking up the amps for Warners at that time. While I felt that while still creating great music, the Metal music sounded more like trying to staying alive by the Late 90's after Filth Pig (although they could have been better...). I think what I'm trying to say is that it was a natural move for American musicians to go that way at that time, and with Jourgensen, and even Reznor, it was not forced, but more strategic after finding out that it was going to be very difficult to keep the original blueprint as they moved through the music industry in The US. I don't think that playing New Wave Retro Shows with a couple of slightly familiar songs was the way they wanted to go. Last edited by Screen13; 07-26-2014 at 06:24 AM.