Vinyl Junkie #5 - With Sympathy

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There I was, high as hell, wandering around Wax Trax II, with absolutely no plan other than picking up a used Tommy Bolin album I had seen the other day. I found myself just standing there, spacing out in the new vinyl section, in front of the "M's," needing to get focused, so I flipped through Ministry, the world's premier industrial metal band, and found a copy of their 1983 debut album, With Sympathy. You know, back when Ministry was a synth pop act, before taking that long, dark, loud, abrasive, aggressive road on which they still travel. I was a bit surprised to see this, brand new, on vinyl. For years, legend had it that Ministry leader Al Jourgensen hated this record so much that he had the master tapes destroyed. Band members lamented in the past that Arista Records demanded a synth pop album, and that With Sympathy in no way represented how the group actually sounded live at that time. Uncle Al eventually stated, and this seems to be the story he's stuck to for awhile now, that his tastes simply changed after he discovered hardcore. Like, you know, "Whatever." Bless you, Uncle Al! And so I couldn't help but get this. I've owned it on both cassette and CD, it's one of my favorite albums, and the opportunity to own it on vinyl was too good to pass up. This is a reissue from the Music on Vinyl label, a company that licenses reissue-worthy albums directly from record labels or from the artists themselves, provided they have control over their music. Special vinyl releases to coincide with new CD's are also a Music on Vinyl specialty. The records are pressed in the Netherlands on 180 gram vinyl. Rock on, my friends. Rock on. (Info verified by Wikipedia)