With Bush still in office in the good ol' U.S. Of A it shouldn't be a surprise that Ministry are releasing yet another fiery album. Sure the band have taken their own stab at capitalism and gotten themselves their own label imprint, 13th Planet Records, but that hasn't stopped them from throwing another musical Molotov cocktail in the White House's direction.

Right off the bat it becomes quite clear that "Rio Grande Blood" is an album driven by sinewy, grating riffs and a scathing view on how America is currently doing business. Much like the last two albums, this sees clips of Bush speeches, electronically garbled vocals and abrasive industrial anger all assembled together at a breakneck pace.

But while this effort may feature some of the most metal riffs the band have ever employed, for all its virulent belligerence and hostility, it soon gets locked in gear and loses momentum - especially in the lyric department. Sure there's conspiracy theories on the events of 9/11, shots at Bush, etc. but this is basically the same content that made up the bands last two albums as well.

Sadly, this is not the only place repetition rears its ugly head as the song writing, while surprisingly metal-based, is often uneventful and therefore draining. The band do try to spruce it up with some faint electronic undercurrents, speech samples and various change-up's; but half the time they are robbed by the flat production which lacks any amount of substantial bass response, focusing almost exclusively on treble heavy mids.

Even with all these negative circumstances going against it "Rio Grande Blood" does still still live up to some of the bands more influential earlier work, at least in terms of heaviness. However, barring the ethnic female chants that adorn the dirge-like "Khyber Pass", the group, or rather the current incarnation of it, really don't say or do anything all that significant here. Instead they just suit up and soldier on, offering exactly what one would expect from a pissed off Ministry and little else.