09.03.18

Ministry, Al Jourgensen’s legendary industrial metal outfit, was rightly revered by the masses in its heyday but mocked in recent years for incessantly defibrillating the band’s corpse following each public disbandment. The band’s fourteenth studio album AmeriKKKant is, if you haven’t already caught on, a record about American politics. With track names such as Wargasm, TV 5-4 Chan and Victims of a Clown, the forefather of distorted electronics manipulates vocal snippets from Trump rallies while haphazardly ranting over heinously calculable metal riffs. And while heavily processed Trumpisms maintain a refined balance of horror and humour, AmeriKKKant’s unfiltered anger comes off as a violent tantrum rather than a calculated takedown of the American president.

Classic Ministry heft is occasional, irregular and abstracted by gawdy rap-rock turntabalism. Antifa, the record’s most lyrically mutinous moment (“Skinheads taking a dive/ Antifa is coming for you they won’t survive”) harks back to Ministry circa The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, but lacks the nuanced cynicism that Jourgensen is so capable of producing. And herein lies AmeriKKKant’s fatal flaw. It’s a release so socially incensed that the overall product is rendered totally ineffective.

Tom Watson