ALBUM REVIEW: HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES – Ministry
Standing for over 40 years, MINISTRY have built a legacy that is filled with weird and wild stamps. Behind that is Al Jourgensen, the final original member of the band still active within, 65 years old still giving it whatever he’s got. Fifteen studio albums in and it doesn’t look like he plans on slowing down anytime soon; instead it seems he’s one of the few of his generation willing to indulge in the ever changing musical landscape and keep on observing. HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES is the band’s sixteenth record, aiming its sights at incels, social media and the right wing alike.
HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES as a title alone has an air of chronic Reddit usage. In spite of that, the 16th album in the discography is able to keep up with the rest musically; opener B.D.E, which you can make of what you will, devours the early moments of the record with maniacal and chugging riffs, whilst Goddamn White Trash revels in rolling drum machines tinged with an industrial aesthetic. Topically, it’s smack bang on brand for MINISTRY, and Just Stop Oil goes on to lock that in with coiling guitars as it co-opts the climate activists’ statements. It’s easy and on the nose – almost anybody could write a track about climate change, and even more could do it just by sampling the group’s speeches.
On the bright side it’s reassuring to see an artist in their sixties taking issues that most would say “won’t affect them anyway” seriously, even if it’s just for an easy track. Optically, it circles back a conversation that needs to be had no matter your age. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean the material as a whole body is spectacular; individually sure it’s not too bad, you can definitely find some enjoyment in the synth-inspired and organ-touting Cult Of Suffering if you’re looking for some political empowerment. Or you can indulge the fervorous thrash of TV Song. They don’t make a complete picture, not at face value at least, it’s something more distorted to view; themes overlap and have some synonymity to them but that’s often thanks to them being buzz topics and pain points.
At the end of HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES the framed image is uninspired; it’s crystal clear that album 16 for MINISTRY is pumping out fumes and guzzling gas by the gallon at this point. The ‘hopium’ is that the topics will serve MINISTRY and not vice versa, a conflicting thought when thinking about the serious nature of the tracks. Jourgensen must’ve wondered how he could MINISTRY-fy them, but coincidentally that also means sucking the essence of their meaning out of them, diluting it into a packable mp3 and vinyl that can be sold off for more than it’s worth.
Rating: 4/10
HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES is set for release on March 1st via Nuclear Blast Records.
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