Dark Side of the Spoon

Background

Dark Side of the Spoon features less aggressive songs than Ministry's previous albums, and frontman Al Jourgensen had intended it to be the case. He wanted to branch out from the "drug-infused" records of The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste and Psalm 69 to a more "unfamiliar territory." As such, Jourgensen ranks Dark Side of the Spoon as his favourite 90's Ministry album.

In his autobiography, Jourgensen confirmed that the title is a play on words referencing Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, referred to the blackened or dark side of a spoon heated to dissolve heroin, as several members of the band suffered from long-term addiction to said substance at the time.

The album's cover, which features a naked fat woman sitting in front of a black board with "I will be god" written numerous times gained controversy and was banned from Kmart. The woman and the words on the blackboard were later airbrushed out.

The saxophone part of the song "10/10" is taken from the last 22 seconds of "Group Dancers" on the Charles Mingus album The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Whip and Chain and Bad Blood feature vocals from Ty Coon, singer and Al Jourgensen's girlfriend at the time.

Hidden tracks

After the end of track 9, tracks of silence begin. There are 58 silent tracks on the album, totaling 10:26

Tracks 15 - 67 are all approximately 4 seconds in length.

"Everybody" is track 68 (track 69 on the Japanese edition). Houses of the Molé, another Ministry album, features a hidden track called "Walrus" which is also track 69. According to BMI, track 68 is called "Summertime". Allmusic and the official website of the band refers to this track as "Everybody".

Ministry

Additional personnel