For over 20 years, Ministry has been the driving force and prime innovator of the "industrial rock" movement. The mastermind behind the band, Al Jourgensen, first delivered a scathing attack on the Bush family back in 1992 with the track NWO from the Psalm 69 album. Complete with voice-overs by George Bush Sr., it attacked the current presidential regime and its perceived quest for world domination; a sentiment shared by many other countries throughout the world. With another Republican in the White House (George Bush Jr.) and the world in turmoil once again, Al Jourgensen decided it was once again time to unleash his fury. He even states the he writes his best records when Republicans are in the White House as it gives him plenty to be angry about. After touring for last year's Animositisomia, Jourgensen's long-time partner, bassist Paul Barker decided to leave the band prompting Al to go into the studio to record a balls out heavy and nasty album. Al's dislike for Bush is all over this album from the picture of him on the inside wearing some sort of dunce cap to the fact that in honor of George W himself, every track has the letter "W" in it's title.

After an apocalyptic sounding intro to the opening track No"W" complete with eerie chanting choirs reminiscent of the Omen movies and voice-overs by George W himself proclaiming to be "fighting evil", the track rips into a fast hardcore/thrash metal groove. This one's a very scathing attack on the Bush administration and it's policies. Waiting tackles the issues of religious fundamentalism and evangelism and Al screams out repetitively that he's "still waiting for Christ in the U.S.A." accompanied by great heavy groove riffs and a solid driving tempo. A couple of tracks, Worthless and Warp City offer a very disturbing look at modern American culture. Worthless points out that anyone without a sense of self-worth and confidence is deemed to be a lost cause and not worthy of aid or sympathy and Warp City deals with the awful and hideous things that happen everyday and the cheap price tag that's put on a human life. Images of pre-meditated murder, mass killing and the kinds of horrendous crimes committed by people fighting off their inner demons are all featured here in very graphic detail (not the kind of stuff you want to put on to cheer you up!!!). Wrong, once again deals with the Bush administration and their decision to go into Iraq. A bit reckless and disjointed, this one has more of the great heavy "groove" style riffs that are found throughout this album. The hardcore trash/speed metal tempo of WTV sets up the mood for Al's look at the pollution that's on TV these days. Dealing with everything from commercials, infomercials, TV news and reality TV, lots of taped voices from commercials etc. are used to really drive home Al's point that we are bombarded on a daily basis with all this crap. One of the better songs, World, has a very catchy heavy groove and urges people to exercise their right to invoke change, an obvious reference to the upcoming U.S. presidential election. WKYJ, a creepy look at personal obsessions leads into Worm, a track that has a very atmospheric and gothic flavor to it.

In case you didn't notice the top of the review where it lists the album as having 69 tracks.....it really does. In true Al Jourgenesen tongue-in-cheek fashion, after track 9, Worm a series of silent 5 second tracks pass by until track 23 (an obvious reference to Psalm 23 as quoted by George Bush on several tracks on this album) called Psalm 32 that features an alternate version of the first track No"W" complete with a Star Spangled Banner intro and then more 5 sec. tracks until track 69 (in reference to Psalm 69, an older Ministry track). This one's called Walrus and is a variation of the song Worm.

I really like most of this album but a few tracks are a little too reckless and downright disturbing for my tastes. For true Ministry fans, this one's a masterpiece and should be in your collection. It appears that Al would like nothing more than a change in the White House come this fall. If it doesn't, at least he will still have lots to write about!! Whatever the outcome of the upcoming election, Ministry has created some of the harshest and openly critical attacks on the Bush administration that I've ever heard. Recently, anti-Bush comments made at U.S. concerts by Linda Ronstadt and Don Henley resulted in a large number of fans walking out. In light of this, the question is.....when Ministry tours the U.S. this fall with material like this......will anyone even show up?