The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste is the fourth studio album by industrial metal band Ministry, released in 1989 through Sire/Warner Bros. Records. The music took a more hardcore, aggressively guitar-driven direction. Jourgensen was inspired by Stormtroopers of Death and Rigor Mortis to add Thrash Metal guitars to The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste and other subsequent Ministry albums.[2] As with most of Ministry's work, the album's lyrics deal mainly with political corruption ("Thieves"); cultural violence ("So What"); environmental degradation, and nuclear war ("Breathe"); drug addiction ("Burning Inside"); and insanity ("Cannibal Song").
