Ministry Releases “Antifa,” Promptly Sets A Trashcan On Fire And Collapses In A Pool Of Its Own Urine

Continuing his existence as a walking anti-drug ad, Cuban/Norwegian musician Al Jourgensen and whoever he has hired this week released “Antifa,” a track from the upcoming Ministry album AmeriKKKant on Nuclear Blast Records. In a desperate bid to remain relevant, Jourgensen has adopted a hybrid of Millennial politics and Baby Boomer sanctimony in a move that will alienate his Generation X fanbase.

Antifa, as anyone who has been less drunk than Jourgensen over the past few years knows, is the “anti-fascist” group that has made a name for itself for beating up innocent young girls, looting high-end stores, using Apple iPhones to take selfies in Che Guevara tshirts, and setting trash cans on fire. To endorse Antifa, you have to be Communist, which is not surprising since Antifa originated as a project of the German Communist Party during the 1930s.

Musically, this track completes the transition Ministry began on its last album from a hybrid of industrial, punk, metal, and indie rock into a straight up rhythm band that uses punk riffs and metal solos over nearly invariant percussion while Jourgensen rants through a distortion box, his original vocal chords long ago having been replaced by a synthesizer chip.

The song follows the pop format, with an introduction and verse chorus loop before a fade-out, with a few characteristic Ministry rhythmic breaks. A static chord and chromatic fill comprise the bulk of the riff, which misses the characteristic interesting phrases and interplay with addictive industrial rhythm of classic Ministry, and forces the song to exist in a place without harmony or melodic hooks.

As a result, this song sounds like the microwaved leftovers of a career that ended in lugubrious irrelevance. It would be cruel to say that is what it is, and maybe it will sell a lot of records to the SJWs and other “message people” who buy books and music solely because they would feel guilty for not supporting the message within them. But as music, it rings hollow.

For example, the verses seem breathless in an attempt to cram as many buzzwords as possible into a rhythmic trope, but the cleverness of vocal and lyric interplay is gone. Guitarists have made solos that sound like the practice show-off doodling famous from the lobbies of Guitar Centers worldwide, and the not so much random as off-topic rhythm playing feels like a Garage Band plug-in.

Many of us remember Ministry from their glory days of The Land of Rape and Honey, A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, and of course their peak, In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up live EP. Maybe this new approach will sell records, but it is far from the time when this band was something you would be proud to have on your CD rack.

It somewhat fades into the background instead. Forget the topic for a moment; what do you hear? More rhythm music with a plaintive complaint in its vocal attitude, and roughly the same song structure and musical approach as everything else on the radio. Drilling down, it sounds like conformity. Perhaps like an Antifa protest, AmeriKKKant will be news for a week and then slip into the memory hole.

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16 thoughts on “Ministry Releases “Antifa,” Promptly Sets A Trashcan On Fire And Collapses In A Pool Of Its Own Urine”

  1. GGALLIN1776 says:

    So another “with sympathy” but with Old Al’s brain fully removed. His last Alex Jones interview when he first moved to Ca was pretty funny because his brain was barely there & the sheer amount of shit in his face.

    Just another old mans attempt at trying to appear “in line with the youth” but only looking as foolish as they do.

    1. canadaspaceman says:

      I heard Al Jourgensen interviewed on the Alex Jones Show around 4 years ago, and yes, it was disappointing; he could barely speak, so maybe drugs have fried his brain.
      The only conclusion I could make from it was – Al was a nihilst and suicidal and anti-authority.
      If all freedom was taken overnight, he would kill himself instead of fighting.

      No wonder the last few Ministry albums are forgettable and don’t put you in a violent mood like his late 1980s/early 1990s material.

      1. gorgeous georg wilhelm freidrich says:

        it was alcohol… the guy has been near death for decade… but I wouldn’t be surprised if his daughter wasn’t involved with this…

  2. Al says:

    Fellow young people!

  3. Al Jourgenson is a pretranny says:

    The 70s trannies didn’t age gracefully.

  4. The other Al says:

    The one thing X-ers did right, is that most had the decency to die in some ditch with a needle in arm.

    1. Can confirm. I was at the funerals.

  5. An AIDS patient says:

    Not gonna waste time listening to this track. Any musician brain dead and out of touch enough to shill for “antifa” needs to suck start a shotgun, NOW.

  6. Trashchunk says:

    This was absolutely hilarious, bad video, bad song, looked like a few seconds of something would be in a Mr.Show or The Upright Citizens Brigade skit.

  7. Psychic Psych Toad says:

    It’s like a competition between Ministry and KMFDM to see who can sell out the hardest! Even the Revolting Cocks had a cooler image than Ministry does today.

    The Village People used to be popular.

  8. Hessian Murderer of Black Death says:

    They think that this makes them with the times, but antifa is not the future. They are merely the present, and will soon be the past. Conservatism is the new counter culture. Generation Z is moderate on social issues, and favour isolationist autarky when it comes to national issues.

  9. 1917 or Die says:

    “Antifa” is not the product of the 1930s KPD, it’s a puppet, there are more undercover cops than actual militants in this.

  10. Covfefe says:

    Why is this techno group being given attention here?

  11. Taylor Swift says:

    Ministry was never good.

    But that cover and title, holy cringe.

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