Amerikkkant

Resenha do Álbum

Considering the fact that Ministry spent the entirety of George W. Bush's presidency making albums expressing extreme hatred toward the commander in chief, followed by several albums and tours which they insisted would be their last, their re-emergence after the election of Donald Trump practically seems right on schedule. Sure enough, AmeriKKKant finds the industrial metal juggernauts railing against the alt-right, racist Internet trolls, fake news, and everything else to do with the aftermath of the 2016 election. While some of the Bush-era albums found the group reinvigorated after the lackluster Filth Pig and Dark Side of the Spoon, AmeriKKKant is just a depressing slog through and through, perfectly summed up by its Statue of Liberty faceplant cover art. Al Jourgensen had previously stated that Ministry would no longer exist after the death of longtime guitarist Mike Scaccia in 2012, and the sharp-fanged bite of his guitar work is sorely missed here, instead replaced by clichéd metal riffage filled with pompous squealing noises. To Ministry's credit, they experiment with a diverse array of sounds and textures here, focusing less on thrash metal and incorporating cinematic strings and a whole lot of turntablism, courtesy of DJ Swamp and former N.W.A member Arabian Prince. The album is also stuffed with glitched-out television soundbites and vintage film clips, ending up with some of the most detailed, overwhelming sample manipulation the group has attempted in a while. However, hearing Trump's election-era catch phrases digitally shredded and scratched up on a turntable becomes grating pretty much as soon as the album begins, and it continues throughout the entire program. "Victims of a Clown" makes extensive usage of Charlie Chaplin's iconic speech from The Great Dictator, which is admirable, and provides an element of hope missing from the rest of the album. But "Wargasm," with boneheaded taunts such as "Violence! We love it!" and a sardonic "war is sexy" rant by Fear Factory's Burton C. Bell, tries too hard to make fun of its subject. The following "Antifa" takes the opposite political perspective, but with samples spelling out the concept of the Antifa and lyrics such as "We're not snowflakes, we are the Antifa!," the effect is practically the same. At 48 minutes, the album is too long by any measure, but wouldn't it have made more sense if it had been cut down to exactly 45?
© Paul Simpson /TiVo