Heavy Song of the Week: Ministry Go Out with a Bang on “Crickets”

One of the best and worst aspects of Ministry is how the perpetual punkishness of Al Jourgensen means the project is always oriented toward what he feels rather than what you want to hear. As frustrating as this can be, it results in a brute sincerity that is redemptive even of the records that feel less impressive. There is never a sense that he is pandering to you, which in turn means everything Ministry have was earned through the same DIY rugged spirit that any great punk or satisfactorily sincere metal project carries. It also means when the project suddenly does land back in those more appealing zones, it hits that much harder. “Crickets,” from Ministry’s just-released 17th and final album, Hate to Go (Take Out or Delivery), isn’t just a politically charged song that encourages disenfranchised people to speak up in the face of oppression and fascism, it’s also a ripper. Ministry’s industrial rock machine-like grooves return here, with the thrash and simpler punk elements toned down in favor of something as inhuman and destructive as the rising forces of AI alongside the already extent machine-terrors of mass surveillance and the digitalized fracturing of reality engineered by...