So after being one of the first to stitch up Bush Snr, Ministry have decided to bow out with this their last and 11th studio album, taking his son with them. And whilst they seem to have lost some of their sting since the glory days of NWO and Jesus Built My Hotrod, their last album Rio Grande Blood was downright nasty. The Last Sucker picks up the same way, with a voice proclaiming the end of the world nigh before they launch into Lets Go, charging guitars screaming in protest, gravelly death vocals and a pounding drum machine. It’s what they do best, the unrelenting charge and in all honesty it’s probably what you’re looking for when you dip into Ministry’s post apocalyptic industrial world. There’s that somewhat cliched testosterone fuelled aggression, the pounding repetative adrenalin fuelled percussion that seems to attach itself double time to your heartbeat, and those cynical anti authoritarian lyrics.
After a while for Al Jourgenson you’d have to assume that its probably become a little limiting, perhaps best evidenced by the fact that the eleven tracks here move subtly beyond this framework, though with with varying degrees of success. There’s elements of death metal with excessive riffing, old school hardcore, King Crimson extended guitar webs, even some anthemic punk rock that wouldn’t sound that out of place on a Greenday album. Then there’s the cover of the Doors Roadhouse Blues which is actually pretty funny, impossibly quick, straightjacketed by pounding beats yet ultimately not much more than a novelty to terrify Jim Morisson fans with. The final 10 minute plus track is almost Ministry does lounge, where Al gets all Leonard Cohen, gravelly crooning complete with back up singers about the End of Days. This is not the Ministry I remember, and whilst it’s interesting to see the mutitude of directions, I want Al and co to tear my face off. And they do on Death and Destruction, one of the most ball tearingly brutal and charging tracks of their career with George W deciding what is best for us, ‘death and destruction,’ it hooks right into your adrenalin glands for three minutes thirty one seconds and wont let go. And that’s how I want to remember Ministry.
Bob Baker Fish
