Ministry
Houses of The Mole
Sanctuary
You know that feeling you get when you’ve had a bad meal and fear the worst is yet to come? This pending doom describes my feeling when listening to Ministry’s newest offering, Houses of The Mole. Gone are the days of the cool industrial flare of Twitch and Land of Rape and Honey. Houses of The Mole finds Al Jourgensen and company treading the same speed metal ground featured on 1990’s Psalm 69. With the opening track “No ‘W’,” Al’s screeching vocals spew full force alongside brutal guitar riffs. This one reminds me of a less effective “NWO,” lacking that song’s impact. On “Waiting,” we get more of the same crap metal treatments and TV samples found on all previous Ministry albums released from 1990-1999. Reminiscent of “Jesus Built My Hotrod,” and just as boring, this track could have been omitted and not missed. The aptly titled “Worthless” is a barrage of noise and yelling that disgusts. The gag factor here is at an all-time high. I still can’t figure out why Jourgensen thinks this music is worth recording.
“Wrong” describes the entire vibe of this album. This mid-tempo piece continues on the same lame path as the rest. As bad as these tracks are – and believe me they are awful – the worst one has to be “Warp City,” a militaristic bombardment of the nasty kind. The guitars here come across as cheesy as they get. “WTV” elevates the angst on Houses of the Mole to unimaginable heights. The AK-47 style musicianship and blaring vocals command the pressing of the track skip button on the CD player. Sadly, the rest of the album does not get any better. “World,” “WKYJ” and “Worm” are equally vile and disposable.
Maybe the past 20 years of heroin addiction have killed all creativity inside Al Jourgensen. I’ve always been a firm believer that nothing good can come from drug addiction, and Houses of The Mole proves my point.
Sanctuary: http://www.sanctuaryrecordsgroup.com
