Gave both the relevant albums a listen tonight, and although the album Octavarium is by far my least favourite of their output, I still like a couple of parts of the title track, mainly the opening, the keyboard solo, and the beautiful guitar outro.
And I didn't always like Ministry all that much, but lately it's grown on me enormously, and to me at least, it has a similar feel to Octavarium, the 'soft' intro, the acoustic guitar to begin the singing, the long instrumental break, the soaring guitar ending. Both are self-consciously 'epic'. Both are lyrically preposterous. Both contain prime examples of what I - and I alone, these are only my tastes - consider the best and worst of the band. But to me, Ministry of Lost Souls is by some distance the more enjoyable track of the 2.
I know from various threads and polls that Octavarium has many more fans than Ministry, but I'm interested to know how many people prefer the SC track over Octavarium, and why.