In 2007, industrial metal legends Ministry released "The Last Sucker," an album that founder and mastermind Al Jourgensen
claimed would be his last. Later, in 2012, the band crawled out of retirement with "Relapse," which was also purported to be a
swan song. While the former was a much more fitting final chapter to the
Ministry legacy than the latter, apparently it wasn’t fitting enough. Yep,
Ministry has returned yet again!
It’s hard to imagine anyone complaining either
as From Beer to Eternity is a great record. Ministry’s 13th studio album was primarily written by
Jourgensen and longtime co-conspirator Mike Scaccia in the months before the latter's tragic onstage death. In tribute to the groundbreaking guitarist, "From Beer to Eternity" delivers a
firestorm of his trademark thrash pummel. Part of Jourgensen’s evil genius is
his ability to blend Scaccia’s blistering speed/thrash assault with
circuit-grinding industrial and terabyte-sized grooves and hooks. "From Beer to Eternity" does this
brilliantly.
Album opener “Hail to His Majesty (Peasants)” slithers about with a
mechanized weirdness. For the next six tracks, Ministry spits venom and
breathes fire with a barrage of cyber-thrash chaos. “Lessoned Unlearned” kicks
out some surprisingly awesome hard rock jams complete with female backing
vocals. With jazzy grooves and spoken word cynicism Jourgensen sends a wink toward
Tom Waits on “Thanx, but No Thanx.” As a final good-bye (yes, this is another "last album"), “Enjoy the Quiet” sends us home with an beehive of noise and a
quaint goodbye message from the surprisingly affable Jourgensen. If this is truly Ministry's last hurrah, on behalf of all of us, thank you, Al.
And R.I.P. Mike.
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