Even in their earliest industrial albums (maybe not their first 2 albums as much — the synthpop ones lol) in the late 80s were very overtly political — both in the music and in live performances, where they’d go on political rants all the time during their shows. It’s so weird to me CHUDs will talk as if the album The Land of R*pe and Honey was apolitical, with songs like ‘Golden Dawn’ and ‘Hizbollah’

The titular track of ‘The Land of R*pe and Honey’ is overtly anti-nationalist with ‘sieg heil’ chant sample-clips in the background of lyrics like “Step by step, blood by blood, the mountain that you tumbled from”… “fist to fist, eye to eye, rulers of the wasteland”… “head to head, chest to chest, which country is the very best? and in the land of r*pe and honey, you prey/pray” It is not subtle. And when Nazi skinheads who were too stupid to get the message would show up with a backwards idea the band would jump into the crowd to beat their asses themselves.

One of their old live shows had Jello Biafra on stage during that song holding an American flag while goose stepping and alternating doing the nazi salute and then bringing that hand to suck his thumb like a baby. This is not apolitical lmao. Which incidentally I’ve also heard people complain about Jello Biafra going woke as if he was ever apolitical; with his band called DEAD KENNEDIES with such apolitical songs like “kill the poor” "lets lynch the landlord’ “holiday in cambodia” lmao.

And the second industrial album by Ministry from 1989 The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste also has very prominent political messages throughout too. ‘Thieves’ (banger song) has sample-clips of Nixon and of Lee Erney’s character in Full Metal Jacket; and when it says “Thieves and liars! Murderers! Hypocrites and bastards!” “Hey thanks for nothing! Morals in the dust! two-faced bastards and syncophants! No trust!” it is not speaking apolitically lol.

‘Breathe’ talks overtly and explicitly about corporate self-serving destroying the environment and healthy life, talks about children suffocating on second-hand air in poisoned environments and lyrics like “Rusted syringes and half-thought disposal, A burial at sea, Waste water graveyard, Swimming in disease”

‘Cannibal Song’ and ‘Never Believe’ have overt anti-clerical and anti-prison bents in pretty visceral terms.

It takes a deliberate effort I don’t understand in order to ‘not see politics’ in even the earliest of their industrial and metal works, to say nothing of their live performances which used and tore down fascist symbols and was as in your face with politics as it could get. They have always been like this, then continued as you said through Bush… I mean they never stopped. Al has always been very outspoken politically and works with people who are the same.