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MINISTRY
From Beer To Eternity

AFM (2013)
Rating: 9.5/10

After decades of pissing people off, Ministry called it a day back in 2007 with their album The Last Sucker due to mainman Al Jourgensen’s failing health. Fast forward through the awful Buck Satan country album (2011’s Bikers Welcome Ladies Drink Free) and we arrived at a handful of songs written with Jourgensen’s partner in crime Mike Scaccia (Rigor Mortis). The result was the Ministry album the metal world had wanted for a decade, Relapse (2012).

A return to form in almost every sense, the band seemed poised to retake industrial metal for their own. Unfortunately, Mike Scaccia collapsed and died on stage while performing with Rigor Mortis in December 2012, and now Jourgensen is ending Ministry again with From Beer To Eternity, the final batch of songs written with his best friend. It’s a great, but sad story. The good news is that this is quite possibly Ministry’s best ever album, easily rivaling Psalm 69 (1992).

Much like Relapse, From Beer To Eternity is more metal and more electronic than most of Ministry’s output in the new millennium. Gone are the driving punk rhythms and the thinner and thinner production of the band’s pre-retirement string of albums and replacing them are the heavy synths that dominated their earlier albums and the thick wall of heavy, and often melodic, guitars that launched the band into the stratosphere with Psalm 69 and Filth Pig (1996). Also, mostly absent are Jourgensen’s political rants. There are a few here (‘Fairly Unbalanced’ and arguably ‘PermaWar’) but for the most part, Ministry keep it less specific, tackling issues as opposed to people.

Pretty much every song here is a highlight, a swirling vortex of sound that is harsh and cold capped off by the odd melodic vocal and the wailing of Jourgensen. ‘Perfect Storm’ embraces all of these elements, reminding us of Ministry’s past as well as what future it might have had. The eight-minute epic ‘Thanx But No Thanx’ tackles the good and the bad the band have seen over the years while fully enveloping itself in pretty much every stage of their legendary career. The guitar work here is much more musical than the band has been in years and it’s not afraid to embrace the almighty groove.

The moments here that I enjoy the most are quite simply the ones that remind me of the band’s pre-Psalm 69 career. The almost dark, synthetic, industrial edge of ‘The Horror’ is the best example, but the harsher ‘Change Of Luck’ is right there with it, bolstering itself with a big anthemic vocal piece towards the end of the song. The guitar work is insane on the latter, proving that these guys still had plenty to offer musically.

Overall, I can’t say enough good things about this album. The only even minor complaint I have is the attack on the TV news channel Fox News on ‘Fairly Unbalanced’. I hate Fox News but I’m also sick of hearing about them. The fact is, this isn’t just “another Ministry album” and it isn’t just “leftovers”. It’s a damn near perfect album that brings the band full circle. My heart is heavy that this is the last ride.

Mark Fisher

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