After a number of weaker albums, Ministry improved again three years ago Moral Hygiene. The heyday of the eighties/nineties are long gone, but the compositions on the fifteenth album appear sharper and more thoughtful. Founder/frontman Al Jourgensen is trying to continue this upward trend with his successor Hopiumforthemasses.
The Ministry of the last ten years is still broadly similar to the Ministry at the time of its industrial classics such as The Land Of Rape And Honey and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste. However, the repetitive guitar riffs and pounding drums have faded into the background and the (often politically tinted) samples are given a more prominent role in the songs. At times Jourgensen goes off track and this over-sampling does not improve the compositions. Still, you have to hand it to Uncle Al, the ingenious way he uses samples in the songs is extremely smart and effective.
Hopiumforthemasses gets off to an excellent start with NDE (which stands for Big Dick Energy and contains strikingly woke lyrics) and Goddamn White Trash. The latter in particular would not look out of place Psalm 69 and let’s hear some of the pounding Ministry of the past. The Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra sings another song as usual, this time Aryan Embarrassment. In addition, there are guest appearances by Pepper Keenan (guitar in the aforementioned Goddamn White Trash and Eugene Htz (Gogol Bordello). The latter Ukrainian singer can be heard in Cult Of Suffering. An excellent, rhythmically oriented, mid-tempo track complete with background singers. The song differs from the other song material, but this turns out well and is even one of the better, catchy songs.
Although not all songs are equally strong, this is still a solid Ministry album in the line of Moral Hygiene. Honorable mention is that cover again. Jourgensen has always had a knack for that. This time it gets the synthpunk cult classic Rickys Hand a beautiful, catchy Ministry version by Fad Gadget. Al Jourgensen recently indicated that there will be a new Ministry album and that he will collaborate again with Paul Barker, who was an important band member of Ministry between 1986 and 2003. Jourgensen also seems to still be planning the Ministry debut that he cursed With Sympathy to re-record the songs with an industrial metal twist. We have to take it with a grain of salt whether this will continue, because Uncle Al has already announced a final Ministry album before.
Track listing:
1. NDE
2. Goddamn White Trash
3. Just Stop Oil
4. Aryan Embarrassment
5. TV Song 1/6 Edition
6. New Religion
7. It’s Not Pretty
8. Cult Of Suffering
9. Rickys Hand (Fad Gadget cover)
Tags: Ministry Hopiumforthemasses Metalfan .nl Review
