Ministry Continues its Rennaissance with HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES

Skewering the usual suspects, Al Jourgensen continues the Ministry renaissance of smart and sly industrial alt-metal.

Al Jourgensen has never been shy about lambasting politicians, political extremists, and social injustices in the music of Ministry. Going all the way back to Ministry’s 1992 release Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and The Way to Suck Eggs, Jourgensen incorporated soundbites from a sitting President of the United States as well as other news broadcast-type jargon and hyperbole. The interweaving of these soundbites added a particular bite and snark to songs like “N.W.O.” On tracks like “Thieves” from The Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Taste (1989) Jourgensen mixed in samples from the film Full Metal Jacket to help drive home the point of the lyrics. Both of these examples represent Jourgensen and Ministry at the height of their smart political and social commentary as well as their use of relevant sampling. Later on though, on tracks such as “Death and Destruction” from the 2007 George W. Bush bashing album, The Last Sucker, the sampling of Dubya’s voice and laugh felt more like a hammer to the head rather than artfully sly commentary. In fact, for a solid stretch of albums, which reached into the Trump era, Jourgensen’s commentary became almost as annoying and hyperbolic as the former presidents themselves. With the 2021 release of Moral Hygiene though, Jourgensen reigned in the blunt commentary and allowed the artistry of his earlier work to resurface. Not coincidentally, the music began to display an artistic merit similar to that of his 1992 and 1989 works as well. With HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES, Jourgensen continues the current Ministry renaissance.  

Tracks like “Aryan Embarrassment” make heavy use of soundbites that bash, exquisitely, the type of vile creatures that chanted anti-Semetic and other hate-filled slogans in Charlottesville during the 2017 riots, but these samples instead set the stage for the musical assault rather than drive the point into the ground, as the aforementioned “Death and Destruction samples do. Other standout tracks such as “New Religion ” make use of a white noise mishmash of talk, similar to the way the white noise screams of early NIN tracks did, creating a sense of disassociation. The album’s opening track, “B.D.E.” swings and sways with the type of swagger that, along with the samples and lyrics, castrates brilliantly what it sonically suggests to support, which is reflected in the song’s title. It’s a highlight of the album. 

Musically, the rhythms remain a mixture of the aforementioned sarcastic swagger and staccato blast. There’s little intricate guitar play, outside of “Just Stop Oil” which boasts some inspired riffing. This is a Ministry album after all. “Goddamn White Trash,” which thrashes powerfully, lifts its rhythm and riff from “N.W.O.” a little too unabashedly at points, but still manages to make a musical statement that is all its own. “It’s Not Pretty” ushers in the apocalypse with the sounds of distorted acoustic guitar which eventually gives way to a proper plugged-in and amped-up electric annihilation. The album’s most interesting track musically, “Cult of Suffering” makes use of organs and a gospel, almost Motown-inspired, backing choir of voices. The song manages to stand out and fit in seamlessly on the album at the same time. 

With HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES Jourgenson and Ministry sound more fresh and reinvigorated than they have in years. Again, this is Ministry, masters of industrial-tinged alt-metal, so there’s not going to be any album of the year nominations or artsy awards surrounding the album later in the year. This is as close as they might get to all that though, and the effort is mightily worthy.