Houses of the Molé

Moles, moles, moles… it’s tough to get rid of them so many years after the fall of the Iron Curtain… they keep popping up at the least expected places, even having found the time to erect whole houses here and there. But not in Al Jourgensen’s back yard, mind you; the man keeps his domain clean, even if the noise generated from it in the late-90’s/early-00’s was more heavily industrialized and less metal-prone.

The thing is that you can’t have a gifted axeman and a sworn thrasher in your midst like Mike Scaccia (R.I.P.), and to keep churning odes to the sterile and the robotic from here to the next galaxy and back. Besides, the new millennium was calling for more classic and more dynamic ways of expression as a way to purge the previous decade’s numetal proclivities. Certainly, no one was expecting the Ministry crew to readily respond to this appeal, having in mind their openly amicable attitude towards the 90’s gimmicks, but the audience also knew that when the guys meant business, things could get overtly rowdy in no time…

and this is exactly what occurs on the album reviewed here, the mythical opening of the “Carmina Burana” cantata accompanying a sizzling thrash tornado on “No "W"”, after which a long string of pieces starting with the letter W follows suit, the rousing fiesta suitably varied, with frolic mid-paced romps (“Waiting”), more abrasive machine-like hymns (“Wrong”), and more urgent hard thrashing skirmishes (“Warp City”) jumping each other fervently, the band annihilating the masses with the violent proto-deathy hurricane “WTV”. After that last blast of fury one would invariably welcome the dirgy doomisms of the “Filth Pig” reminder “World” and the more relaxed semi-dancey strokes on “WKYJ”, the hypnotic semi-balladic sensibility of the 9-min long “Worm” a slightly debatable presence, its ponderous veneer washed away by another explosive tribute to the good old thrash, the headbangers’ ball winner “Psalm 32”.

More psalms of the kind, please, the guys hitting another jackpot with this brisk revitalizing opus, matching their early-90’s repertoire every bit of the way, Jourgensen deftly steering his ship towards more commercially-viable sounds once again. The man’s hostile political stance is also well noted, the US government at the time the main target for his invectives, and what better musical accompaniment for those than a few vigorous thrashy tunes… his confrontational shouty vocal bravado is pretty much intact, too, spitting fire and venom galore at those who deserve it. A musical/textual symbiosis that sounded like a proverbial marriage, noisy and industrial at times, but fairly comprehensive for those who had the ears for it, Jourgensen racing with his colleague Dave Mustaine on the musical stage as well, the Megadeth mainman another openly anti-Bush campaigner.

It also turned out that the band’s anger wasn’t satiated with just one effort of this kind, as the next two outings held the same line, producing more odes to both thrash and political correctness, Jourgensen turning the tides towards himself again. It wasn’t very clear why he wanted to pull the plug on the Ministry enterprise in 2008, a miscalculated decision which got overwritten before long, the second retirement announcement arriving four years after that, but backed by a most strong reason, the untimely passing away of Scaccia… the band haven’t been able to recover properly form this loss, their subsequent works meandering through nuances and influences, somewhat lacking the verve and the gusto that audibly marked their second creative period. The freshly-released “Moral Hygiene” sounds like a deal at times, but one can never be sure when Jourgensen would decide to pour grime and filth over this new, suspiciously clean flash of propriety.

Houses of the Molé was, in my opinion, Ministry's first dip into a theme that would carry on through their next two albums: hatred of the Bush administration. Therefore, a numerous amount of songs on this album have political roots. Your feelings on that are entirely up to you, but I for one think the animosity Jourgenson holds for our wonderful president makes for good listening.



"Houses" is also a turn towards a more aggressive Ministry. There are no obscurely-styled lyrics like those of "The Land of Rape and Honey", but rather straightforward messages presented with thrash/speed elements dominating their later albums shining through brightly(though not quite as much as they did on Rio Grande Blood) with more industrial elements like synth and obscure vocal methods somewhat lacking in comparison. "No W", a track previously released as a single. A wonderful piece of aggression with pounding drums and a speedy guitar riff matched only by the lightning fast fashion in which Jourgenson spits out the lyrics. An excellent song and a better opener. "Wrong", and the catchy-as-hell "Warp City"(Ministry sure likes the letter W...) follow suit in the fashion; relentless aggression that proves Ministry has earned their metal identity.



But it just seems like something got lost in translation... Several throwaway tracks like "WKYJ", and to a lesser extent, "Worthless", exist on the album which just don't manage to stand out! They sound like those former tracks mentioned earlier, but it seems Ministry forgot to insert any personality into them and they just became plodding trips through uninspired thrash metal soundscapes. Jourgenson's vocals come off as flat and uninspired. This proves a point: Ministry is at their best when they can manage to integrate their signature industrial elements with their newfound aggression.

An example of this would be the track "WTV", which serves as sort of a continuation to Psalm 69's, "TV II". The song is half Jourgenson shrieking his fucking head off about hearing voices in his head, and half sound bites of TV shows mixed together in an amusing fashion("The foundation is crumbling and their are...Nazi Henchman..", "Yeah, give the product a new name... Mayonnaise and peanut butter sandwich"). These intermingle into a cacophony of desperate madness and laughter before leading into "World", a sort of anthem in which Jourgenson states that it is all of us who are making our world as bad as it has become, of course coupled with a lovely drum rhythm that will have you beating your hands on something without even noticing. The closer(excluding the bonus tracks), "Worm", is my favorite song on the album, though it is probably the least metal-driven on it. In fact, it sounds more like Faith No More than anything.. But Jourgenson pulls it off with the best hooks he cranks out on the album. Everything from synth to some sort of "boing" sound mix together as Al tells us how pathetic life can be, and how no one gives a shit, before fading away into oblivion with a final chant: "And all is well in our world."



The bonus tracks(most albums since Psalm 69" have had them) are little more than novelties, and somewhat disappointing in my opinion. Once the CD reaches track 13, it will play the song "Bloodlines", which I will confess I have never sat through because the vocals sound like some awful Godsmack knockoff. At 69, what is apparently called "Walrus" plays, which is essentially a part of Worm played in some kind of brass instrument repeatedly, while someone says something backwards repeatedly(I haven't had the time to reverse it yet, but I'll try later I suppose). I guess it's a reference to The Beatle's "I am the Walrus", which if I remember correctly supposedly held a backmasked message.

All in all, "Houses" is not Ministry's best work, but it is an oft-overlooked one. Someone who enjoys Ministry's metal-orientated work will enjoy it the most, but for the others you may want to skip ahead to "The Last Sucker".