UMUR
Houses of the Molé is the 9th full-length studio album by American industrial metal act Ministry. The band make quite a return to form on this album after the mediocre albums Dark Side of the Spoon (1999) and Animositisomina (2003) which I didn´t find more than average material by an otherwise great band. To those who jumped ship after Ministry´s breakthrough album Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs (1992), Houses of the Molé would be a great place to start a new relationship with Ministry.
The music on the album is industrial metal. The underlying riffs are somewhere between thrash metal and hardcore punk in style while there are loads of samples from movies and TV ( and Carmina Burana in the opening track No W) in addition to noisy industrial sounds on top of the riffs. The industrial sounds are almost always low in the mix. Al Jourgensen is as always full of anger and dark emotion but also charm and humour. There are some really great tracks on the album like the fast-paced highlights Warp City and WTV, but songs like No W and Waiting are also great material. There are some more mediocre moments too, but I´m greatly entertained most of the time. The production is professional and powerful.
Houses of the Molé is a great return to form for Ministry and I think a 4 star rating is warranted.