apanthropy

Ministry
Hopiumforthemasses
Nuclear Blast
Released: 3/1/24

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1 – B.D.E.
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 – Ricky’s Hand
–

Ministry are an iconic institution in the world of synth pop, industrial, and industrial metal. Having been active since 1981, the four plus decades of their existence have been marked with no less than sixteen full-length albums. Hopiumforthemasses sees Al Jourgensen performing alongside John Bechdel, Monte Pittman, Cesar Soto, Roy Mayorga, and Paul D’Amour on full-length number sixteen for the band, and the follow-up to their 2021 release, Moral Hygiene.

Ministry, between the years of 1988 and 1999, were a catastrophic force of industrial and industrial metal, having released the seminal and still highly-regarded The Land of Rape and Honey, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, Psalm 69, Filth Pig, and Dark Side of the Spoon within that time period.

Their post-1999 output is debatable in terms of quality. Pitted against the 1988 through 1999 output, it generally doesn’t fare well.

Does Hopiumforthemasses have enough packed into its nine songs to carve a name for itself as one of the premier albums in Ministry’s legacy?

The short answer? No.

This is hardly “industrial metal,” this is cyclical radio rock laden with a bunch of uninspired samples. For having two semi-decent guitar players in the line-up, the output is exhaustingly boring riffs, nothing in the realm of the late Mike Scaccia. For being “politically charged,” this is weak, nothing nearly as dynamic and spiteful as, for example, 2004’s Houses of the Molé.

This whole record comes off as tired sounding and politically cheap. This is CNN-tier bubblegum metal that takes no risks and barely drives through any points. After four decades of making music, there’s bound to be some weak links in a band’s discography, but even still, Hopiumforthemasses is near the bottom.

‘B.D.E.’  and ‘Goddamn White Trash’ are wholly forgettable openers. ‘B.D.E.’ is nothing but two basic riffs and a load of samples and ‘Goddamn White Trash’ is not much different, rehearsal room riffing, stagnant rhythms, loads of goofy samples, and laughable political commentary you really wouldn’t be surprised to hear from a 65-year-old.

‘Just Stop Oil,’ does the listener some favors by remaining uptempo throughout its play through, with emphasized downbeats moving into the chorus and some sparse lead work to add some detail to the composition. Again, the industrial elements are largely regulated to modified pre-cut samples.

‘Aryan Embarrassment’ falls right back into the pit of boring fifth chord progressions that the first two tracks had already attempted. The listener gets the added bonus of listening to Jello Biafra (ex-Dead Kennedys) complain/sing alongside Al Jourgensen. This is definitely not Lard.

‘TV Song 1/6 Edition’ breaks up the boredom with a fast-paced thrashing edge that is retained throughout the track. Tempos of this pace could have been used more to help break up the mid-tempo monotonous nature of Hopiumforthemasses.

‘New Religion’ is wholly forgettable. It takes until track number seven, ‘It’s Not Pretty,’ to get what plays out as a compositionally interesting track, with ambience and ethereal nature in the beginning, and enough variation in tempo to avoid stagnation.

The final two tracks, ‘Cult of Suffering’ and ‘Ricky’s Hand,’ finally demonstrate some industrial sensibilities that are beyond accent drones and goofy samples.

If we are celebrating half-measures and bits and pieces that cry out to the early days of Ministry, then this is a celebration. But the reality is this is a dying band on its last legs looking to cash in on the rather retarded political discourse of 2024 America.

If you want witty discourse with some philosophical engagement, even if to a minute degree, you’re better off going back in time and buying some Choking Victim records.

Ministry released some admirable records in their time, but Hopiumforthemasses falls very very short of being a good album, be it for Ministry, for industrial metal, or for heavy metal as a whole.

Label: Nuclear Blast
Band: Ministry

-AJK