Iron Reagan - Crossover Ministry

Another throwback-ish, semi-retro thrash album for 2017, this time with a bit of a hardcore edge to it and a much shorter time-span, has been delivered by Iron Reagan. I know it was a couple weeks ago when it was put out, I’m only now getting to this one because I just this week finished this quarter’s string of midterms. Nevertheless, I really wanted to get a few things out there about Crossover Ministry, as it has been getting a fair amount of hype lately… or, in my opinion, an unfair amount of hype.

At just a few seconds longer than Slayer’s Reign in Blood, Crossover Ministry really exemplifies the hardcore and thrash ideals (not necessarily universal ideals, though) of getting straight to the point and powering through a track listing non-stop and leaving the listener feeling battered after a short time, which the aforementioned Slayer classic accomplishes clinically and without any hesitation. A little over 30 years later though, Iron Reagan’s 2017 effort kind of tries to throw the same party that thrash was throwing in the 80’s, all by themselves with not as much punch as 1980’s thrash did, aside from a tasty modern production.

This is not to say that Crossover Ministry and albums like it shouldn’t have been made or continue to be made, and it’s not an accusation of Iron Reagan using nostalgia as a gimmick or anything. The band sounds tight and genuine for the most part on the album, and even if their crossover thrash style is sheer mimicry, they have done it quite on point and without coming across as cash-seeking copy-cats of older bands. With 18 tracks on the album, the band packs their punches as briefly as they can before moving on to each successive song, and songs like “Bleed the Fifth”, “Shame Spiral”, “Dead With My Friends”, and “A Dying World” hit their target hard. “Twist Your Fate” provides a solid back bookend to the album with some of the more thoughtful song-writing on the album (though it still doesn’t break the 3-minute ceiling).

Those are the album’s strong points. Where its weakness lies is most centrally in that despite being under half-an-hour, Crossover Ministry feels like it’s still stretched out longer than it needs to be, somehow bearing tracks that sound like (and some of which really seem like they are just straight-up) filler. The few short-burst tracks that finish in under 60 seconds feel like they really don’t need to be there and are only there to add to the number of tracks to make the album look like it’s packing more into its 29 minutes than it really is. (“Eat or Be Eaten” is a worthwhile cut though, if just for the fact that it brings something new in the vocal department.) “Power of the Skull” and “More War” also feel kind of undercooked and presented with not much to garnish them musically, causing them to kind of go in one ear and out the other. The song that I think does the least in favors for the album is the blatantly corny, but still a little too much so “Fuck the Neighbors”. While I’m glad they took a comedic approach with a song (especially this one), the joke/meme of blaring your hard music for the whole neighborhood to hear with a sense of satisfaction/pride is a bit try-hard edgy, bordering on cringe, and certainly old and overdone at this point. The status of the subject matter considered, the song could have ended up being a major ear-sore, but thankfully cut out early and avoided making me wince. It’s generic early 80’s thrash/hardcore shouted refrain and unimaginative instrumentals leave much to be desired still.

As a complete, crossover thrash experience Crossover Ministry falls a little short of being compelling from front to back and, despite energetic performances from the band members, it doesn’t always transfer its energy onto the listener as it sometimes seems like Iron Reagan get stuck trying to connect to the ancient past of thrash and can’t maintain a strong connection with the listener. The album is better served in a buffet-type fashion, where you walk through it and pick out the tracks you enjoy the most (and there will probably be a decent number) and stick with those, and luckily, it’ll only take you half-an-hour to do so, and I do recommend that.

I was considering, having discussed such a string of thrash/thrash-y albums so early, maybe delving into a little piece on the state of thrash at the end of this, seeing as it’s a foundational genre of modern metal that kind of doesn’t seem to feel like stopping its run even after it’s kind of passed the baton to more extreme subgenres. I think I’ll have to postpone that for another separate post though (I still have other work to do). Personally, I’m glad it hasn’t just faded out to leave a bunch of trying-too-hard-to-be-the-most-brutal competition to fill its void. I’m glad it’s still evolving and maintaining a tie to metal’s early years that helps keep metal from turning into a homogeneous trend-hopping fest that it could and that certain other genres have certainly fallen into. But I’ll save that for another time. In the meantime, find what you like on Crossover Ministry and give yourself a break from the excesses of death metal to remember what intensity sounded like before Cannibal Corpse… and then listen to Cannibal Corpse because why not.