Band:	Ministry
Album:	Rio Grande Blood
Style:	Industrial metal
Release date:	May 2006

01. Rio Grande Blood
02. Señor Peligro
03. Gangreen [ft. Sgt. Major]
04. Fear (Is Big Business)
05. Lieslieslies
06. The Great Satan Remix
07. Yellow Cake
08. Palestina
09. Ass Clown [ft. Jello Biafra]
10. Khyber Pass

In retrospect I feel a bit embarrassed for giving Ministry's previous effort a 10. It's not that Houses Of The Mole was bad, oh no! It was actually a refreshingly concise and consistent release after over a decade of interesting and experimental, yet far too obscure and self-indulgent albums. Thus, it seemed to me at the time that Houses was as good as it gets. Well, its not - it was merely a warm up. Rio Grande Blood is better than the previous album in almost every way and is the true return to form from these industrial metal veterans that we have all been waiting for.

One look at the explicit cover art and we can be sure that this album is not about dragons and/or black-clad maidens thinking about suicide. No - this is protest music. It's a convention. You either appreciate it or you don't. If you do, then you'll be happy to hear that actually, this is as good as it gets - insanely angry and sloganeering, yet musically intelligent. Whether they are out-playing Slayer ("Fear Is Big Business"), blasting ahead like a black-metal band ("The Great Satan"), playing dynamic and smart alterna-metal ("Ass-Clown", "Khyber Pass") or.. simply being Ministry ("Rio Grande Blood", "Palestina", "LiesLiesLies"), the band shows everybody who's boss. The production is great also, as are the individual performances by the all-star lineup (Tommy Victor, Paul Raven, Mark Baker and of course, Uncle Al). It's all fast and aggressive and very powerful; the single weak point of this album is "Gangreen", the obligatory joke-track, which simply isn't funny. Don't worry though, since the thrashy riffing of "Senor Peligro" (Bush's alter ego?) and the pure destruction of "Fear Is Big Business" will totally make you forget that small misstep.

Don't let that 0.5 fool you. This is possibly the best album of the year and an absolute must-have for any self-respecting fan of aggressive metal.