Ministry - Rantology (2005)

For a quarter-century now, Ministry frontman and guiding light Al Jourgensen has channeled his rage and frustration with American society through the lens of his band. With a musical formula that is equal parts metallic din and industrial electroclash – with just enough rhythmic signature to make it somewhat danceable – the sound of Ministry is that of a nuclear blast of white sound bursting forth from your speakers like some sort of saber-rattling golem. While it took Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor’s alienation politics to make industrial music palatable for the unwashed masses, Ministry has remained on alt-rock’s lunatic fringe, making only coy advances towards mainstream popularity through the years, and then abruptly pulling back like a nervous schoolboy.

Over the past decade, however, Jourgensen – and, by association, Ministry – has become increasingly politicized. Although Ministry has long addressed controversial and political issues in its lyrics, since the reign of King George I and Ministry’s blistering attack “N.W.O.” the rules seemed to have changed. With the arrival of George the Younger, Jourgensen seems to have gone full-tilt into madness, raging against the machine with a ferocity and decibel level surpassing even the most radical of punk bands. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. The striking, black leather-clad singer is nevertheless a middle-aged musician and an unlikely spokesman for a generation of youth that is being lied to, manipulated and sent to war by the current (conservative) administration. Like an old lion whose claws remain razor-sharp, Jourgensen’s uncompromising stance and powerful language speaks to the dissatisfaction many of us feel with the direction of the ship of state.

Rantology seems to be the logical conclusion of Jourgensen’s anger at the way things are going these days, the artist both revisiting his storied past and burning many of his bridges to the future. A collection of remixes/remakes with a handful of live tracks thrown in to spice up the blend, Jourgensen is reinventing Ministry’s music for the new millennium even while celebrating the 25 years that have passed by. Many of the usual suspects are taken out of mothballs and prettied up for Rantology, from a mondo-scary remake of “N.W.O.” and the eerily discomforting “Stigmata” to the surreal collaboration with Gibby of the Butthole Surfers, “Jesus Built My Hot Rod.” All of the songs are provided a sharp, shiny new edge, remaking even old gems like “Unsung” into lethal weapons. Live tracks like “Psalm 69” and “The Fall” illustrate the eardrum-shredding power and majesty of Ministry as live performance terrorists.

The one new track on Rantology is “The Great Satan,” a muscular, abrasive dismissal of President Bush and conservative politics that cuts like a scalpel and bludgeons like a lead pipe. Woven throughout the album’s frankentracks are spoken word pieces nabbed from the TV news, Bush’s public pronouncements fodder for studio-manipulated samples that help reveal that the emperor truly has no clothes. Although Jourgensen’s overwhelming anger and tacit alienation often leave the artist intellectually inarticulate – even “The Great Satan” presents few new lyrical or musical ideas – there’s no denying the sheer sonic power of Ministry’s take-no-prisoners musical approach. Given the current media landscape, it’s unlikely that Rantology will jumpstart the sort of mutiny that Jourgensen may be imagining…in which case, Ministry’s final legacy may be in the band’s creation of the soundtrack for the coming apocalypse. (Sanctuary Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Rantology from Amazon.com)