Year: 2021
Total Time: 47:15
Label: Nuclear Blast
If there is one band around that loves to deal with all kinds of sociopolitical issues that surround the world and present them to us without any mercy in all their releases, those are undoubtedly the American heroes MINISTRY. This band is the spiritual child of Alain “Al” Jourgensen who celebrates proudly 63 years on this planet and they are here once again to tell us what’s going on without any second thoughts whatsoever.
If anything else, the last two years have offered our dear Al tons of material to cope with. Locked in his house somewhere in Chicago, with the pandemic marching on globally, the BLS movement and the former president doing his own thing with highlight the invasion in the White House, I am pretty sure it was no problem for Al to prepare and release the new album of the band, which he named “Moral Hygiene”, a title that is more informative and suitable than anything else.
From the very first seconds when “Alert Level” hits our ears why are asked straight away and repeatedly with the question of our times, “How concerned are you?” “Good trouble” that comes out next is a full on “American” tune, dedicated to the senator and activist John Lewis who died last year and explains to us that when all trouble has a good cause when happens, then it’s a mandatory situation, before “Sabotage Is Sex” which musically I would say that it’s a rather industrial version of the DEAD KENNEDYS, something that looks quite natural since the vocals are done by Jello Biafra, the legendary singer and punk symbol of them This is actually one of the highlights of the album for me. The number called “Disinformation” that comes next could have easily been called “Fake News” because it deals with another disease of our times, this trend that grows more and more everyday instead of vanishing and it mostly contains digital samplers taken from various speeches of the ex-USA president Trump. A classic MINISTRY tune here and a very nice effort indeed. We are moving on with “Search & Destroy” which is nothing more than a cover version of the classic song by THE STOOGES, a melodic groovy tune that I believe was chosen mostly by its fitting title. They brought it to the band’s standards though, so it is one more positive moment of the album. Next, we get “Believe me” which reminded me the early, more gothic times of the band with that classic tempo and the keys mostly on the chorus. On the track “Broken System” Al deals with the climate change and how we don’t do anything about it, with his own words of course, while “We Shall Resist” is a dark groovy tune with lots of samples calling us to arms while we still have some time left. Rather unusual for MINISTRY and quite boring for my taste I have t say. Just before the end there is “Death Toll” which is a collection of samples about the albums subject matter and the closing number is “TV Song #6 (Right Around The Corner Mix)” which is similar to the previous one but much more speedy. I don’t know what you think, but for me it was pretty annoying so I didn’t play it more than two times, and that was mostly for the sake of it.
Having bands like MINISTRY with all the history and their heavy weight from the 40 years of life in the scene is a very important thing in those dark gloomy days we live. Anything they have to say, they do it “in your face” and are not afraid to confront anyone, even if he is the USA president, remember the albums “The Last Sucker” or “AmeriKKant” some years ago. Musically I can’t say I am impressed, obviously there are a lot of good moments in here. A lot of variety but unfortunately I don’t promise I will take my time with it soon again as I am not a fan of excessive “samples” use after all.
Rating: 5,5/10
Editor: Antonis Livanios
Related Link: MINISTRY – Official Page
