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 social media platforms and their billionaire owners.

This song is angry in all the right ways and smart in all the others; set this to a groove that calls to mind the era of Psalm 69 and The Land of Rape and Honey, and you have a killer on your hands. It’s our Heavy Song of the Week.

Honorable Mentions

Dream Unending – “Causal”

Dream Unending’s reconfiguration from stargazing death-doom eventually into full-blown progressive metal was an expected one. Their expansion into something jazzier and altogether more akin to maudlin of the Well than Paradise Lost was not. It is a welcome transition, however, one that respects the heights the duo were able to achieve so quickly by not attempting to replicate them. This new terrain, captured best by album closer “Causal,” is surreal in a way that, in the language of dreams, is less Salvador Dali and more Juan Rulfo, a discrete desert mysticism and a journey through vast plains and curling tunnels both. It is also an apt example of heavy music as a form of poeticism, on top of being a whetting of the palette for whatever Tomb Mold, the main group of the guitarist, has cooking up next.

Enslaved – “I Am Ice”

As much as I adore the more progressive wing of Enslaved’s sound, which now occupies the primary position for the group, these moments of more direct black metal are a necessary element. The true power of Enslaved is not found in either their hybrid of Genesis and Pink Floyd or in their folk and black metal hybrids but in the balance of all of the above. There is a spiritual, if not religious, aspect to heavy music, something akin to brutal meditation, which Enslaved achieves again here. Their music often feels more like church than a mere record, a testament to what can be achieved over three decades of devotion to the cause.

Steven Wilson – “A Basket of Bees”

A benefit and curse of Steven Wilson’s solo career is its utter openendedness and progressive spirit means loving one record may not mean anything regarding your feelings for the next project. So it’s been of particular interest to me as the singles for his upcoming record Requiem for a Village keep rolling out that they seem to outline a very curious album that explores the more acid folk wing of progressive music of the ’60s and ’70s as well as the bizarre folk horror and cozy horror of the same time period, feeling like a demented Chesire Cat twin to the brooding and melancholic The Raven That Refused to Sing from years back. More extensive cross-referencing in his oeuvre is possible (elements of Insurgentes and Grace for Drowning, not to mention Storm Corrosion) but the point is that this looks to be another clear winner for Wilson.