Was never a fan (but I did like "Left Behind"). Thought Slipknot were rubbish. Thought the fans and the crappy t-shirts were rubbish. Was never big on acne, sweaty boys, bad BO, smelly feet and cheap deoderent. What was with the lame boiler suits and the masks stolen from the set of Mr Bungle's "Quote/Unquote" video?

But as of "Vol. 3"..? Wow.

Who cares what Slipknow were? Who cares if they had solos or not? Who cares whether they sold out or not? This is up there with Machine Head's "Through the Ashes of Empires" in terms of metal releases in the last 12 months. Wonderful production. Clear as hell sounds. Quirkiness, song structure, heaviness and melody... about time. Do I have to announce the death of nu-metal... again?

Thank you Rick Rubin, my armpits are sweaty, my chin itchy, feet stinky... I'm looking for that black t-shirt now! About time.

Only one reason for writing this review. I'm tired of the "fans versus haters" of this album. I'm no socialist, but I am political and I am an activist, and it's at that point I intervene. This album is about activism, about seeing things, waking up, getting annoyed and demonstrating that annoyance. So far, the main criticisms of RATM are that they are sell outs and hypocrits...

Well, the thing I find interesting about this whole review process is the context of the various reviewers. It can be helpful to follow up some of the criticisms layed on RATM, check out some of the other reviews by both the lovers and haters. What's their context? Are they listening to what you're listening to? Are they not? What generation are they? Woodstock? Early ninties/grunge? Socal/Norcal (RHCP, FNM etc)? nu-metal? etc.You can leanr a lot by getting to know your enemy

Sort out where they're coming from, what's their purpose?

As for this CD, it's not without its flaws, but it's solid, motivating, riff based rap rock that laid the template for the subsequent rap-rock boom. It's energetic and inspiring, it's troubling and problematic. At the very least, it'll provoke a reaction. At best, it might interest the listener in standing up against apathy.

Here I am, intervening, activated, raging against the machine!

Buy this DVD, and the Manga it came from (there's a brilliant Bilingual out there).

Watch the Matrix again. Say the words derivative, plagiarised, simplistic.

Come home to where it all came from. Do the concept of cyborg, artificial intelligence and being wired and always on some justice. Take out the poor white trash and all its CG. And just watch this instead.

nuff said.

Alongside the only other review, mine might seem superfluous. I am, however, in complete agreement with Edwin Jake Peterson on this one.

Kamiya's text is well layed out, filled with excellent, informative - though not overwhelming - charts, descriptions, definitions and explanations. On the first read I understood why all my adjective and adverb use in Japanese was so incomplete.

Rather than repeat Peterson's review I would like to emphatically endorse this is as an exemplary Japanese Language teaching and learning aid. I am surprised that it is not more widely available and used.

If there is only one book on Japanese adjectives and adverbs worth purchasing, it is this book, completely peerless in terms of quality of presentation, information and style. I'd reccommend this for any learner of Japanese at any stage.

I entirely concur with the majority of reviews on this site. POAAF is the be all and end all of Manson. It is so raw, unadulterated, new and original. There is a buzzing intensity on this LP not present on any of the others. While later albums had good cuts, in their on specific ways, this one has the great cuts. Something in the production values themselves make this seem darker and edgier than anything else that followed. It's important to say however, that although I personally don't like the later recordings as much as this one, MM did succeed in creating himself as a particular anti-establishment icon.

Well done Mr Manson, thank God (yes because if there is a devil, god, deity of any sort representing evil he or she would be responsible for bland, uninspiring mediocrity and status quo, not profanities and anarchy) you didn't melt into the conservative cowardice that the other MNM did. Your heart was in the right place from the start. Swear words and murder ballads do not a rebel make (listen up a certain peroxided "rapper"). This album is by far the best of the series, although the rest do serve the purpose of keeping the name, image and idea fresh and without compromise, alive.

This is a wonderfully frank and explicit text book written from a truly queer perspective. Having many lesbian friends, the thing I most liked about them was their open frank discussions of relationships and sexuality. Much more than gay men where I'm from, dykes where their sexualities far more explicitly. I always wondered at the thoughts, feelings and observations of these women with regards to the realm of sex.

How do they think of women? How do they think of their bodies? What can they (should/will?) teach men?

The authors have quite a lot of fun discussing the ins and outs of lesbian sex and how to apply the same theory for men. It works rather well. And I particularly enjoyed the text's committment to queerness and fluidity.

I have two criticisms of this book.

The first is - there are no pictures. Now I understand why this is, as the authors state, there is a lot of variety out there with regard to genitals. So fair enough, but even some generic photos (heck - even line drawing diagrams) of the various components would have helped round out the descriptions (but then again, I guess the focus is on getting out of your head and into the funk...).

The second is that there is not a sustained discussion on penises. This is understandable, given the title and angle of the book. But more space could have been given to male physique. That said, there is always - "Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man", but I've not read that one yet...

Criticisms noted, this is an excellent read and skilfully balances the importance of emotional and sexual relationships. The queer factor, combined with the fact the advice has come about through research with a number of different lesbian, bi, hetero and pansexual women (more on the conditions under which it was undertook would have been interesting and valuable) make this a rather wonderful "how to".

Well, I'm at it again, singing the praises of yet another desert island must have. Like the latest Ministry release this album features layer upon layer of guitars and noise, shifting monolithic industrial textures and most importantly a sense of humor. The anti music guitar feedback un-solos that leak around and fill up the neglected sonic frequencies are awesome. Yet if you're thinking the whole thing is unlistenable textural washes, you're wrong. Every song is held to earth by a regular, relentless and almost monotonous beat (but remember, this is where the layers of noise and harmonic come in to add variety).

Best tracks? "Creep", "Butcher Flower's Woman" and "Mr Lucky" (with it's sleazy horns and all, this must be one of the funniest songs I've ever heard, with the exception of the title track - if you don't know, get up to speed on all your Ministry/Revco trivia to make best use of the humor here).

Linger Ficken is quite a departure from Beers Steers and Queers, which in itself was a departure from Bigsexyland. Yet, it still retains all the harsh beats and ambulating tempos and surreality of all previous releases. True, non retro (at least not strictly speaking rock retro) psychadelia. Ingest at peril!

I heard this album in 1994. Before I'd heard Ministry on the radio and a friend had loaned me an awful dub of Psalm 69. My best metalhead friend had a cassette version of LORAH, said it was garbage and I could keep it. After hearing Psalm and loving it, I wondered what could have been wrong with this album. After all, this friend had only put me onto the best before...

And then I realised - the staccato rhythms, the nastiest voice I'd ever heard, the fierce anti authoritarian lyrics and the pure malice of punk via techno. Never again has anything like this LP been made. It has dread, doom, and disenchantment, it so so evocative and frightening, so harsh and sinister, yet entirely listenable.

The stranger, atmospheric tracks qualify as my favourites - "Goldendawn" and "you know what you are". And never since has pure spite been recorded as effectively as "Flashback".

A defining moment in twentieth century music.

A truly inspired and inspiring metal album. Never since has a masterpiece such as this been put on tape.

Down is a wonderful intersection between the Heavier than thou sludge of down tempo New Orleans and a direct decsendant of the Sabbath Lineage. What came together at this place and at this time was pure music. There was enough rage, depression, groove and darkness to go around, perfectly counter-balanced by an acute sense of melody and song structure.

A southern moonshine distillation of of Pantera, COC, Crowbar and Eyehategod, NOLA never leans too heavily in any of these directions without being pulled into something new and exciting from another direction (witness Bury Me in Smoke, Eyes of the South and Stone the Crow).

This is a difficult album to wear out, it yields so much depth that any number of listens under any number of different contexts can result in a very different appreciation of NOLA (witness the ultra groovy Basslines on Swan Song).

This is worth every one of it's stars and qualifies as one of the definite "take to a Desert Island discs".

This is where more metal should have went (instead into it's vile descent into the depressing, self loathing, uninteresting nu-metal role). Bluesy, faithful to Sabbath origins, great riffs. Every solo, and indeed most songs actually have a different tone colour. This album feels and smells and a jam session in the heat of the south. Muscular riffs and sloppy solos (sloppy in a good way - as in loose, playing around the groove, syncopated in a rubbery bluesy way), are the order of the day. This album has a distinct "sound", a rare thing in the current climate of sterile over production. The mellow instrumentals work well to pace the album and give relief to some of the heavier tunes like "Broken Man".

The follow up, "wiseblood" was just as good although "America's Volume Dealer" was a tad on the mediocre side (see my review).

COC, with this album successfully reinvented their sound and image, though retained a biting, jaded and yet paradoxically activated sense of politics. All in all, a metal classic.