Ministry-From Beer To Eternity

AFM Records
2013

Plain and simple folks the back-story to this one sucks. It big time sucks. In case you don't know Mike Scaccia, who also played guitar with his other band Rigor Mortis, died three days after the rough tracks for this album were finished. It's understandable that Al Jourgensen both decided to still release the album and that he plans for this to be the last Ministry release. That doesn't make it any easier to listen to this release, but it does put an album like "From Beer To Eternity" into perspective. And while I would normally not take stock in too much of what Al has to say, as he jumped the shark years back when he became overly obsessed with anything/everything George Bush Jr. did and said (it's not as if there were/still are literally hundreds of other politicians from both sides of the isle who deserve such special "attention"), I will agree with him that these recordings are something special. That's not to say that lyrically and sample-wise he doesn't still come off as a one-trick pony. As talented as Al is, he handles vocals, guitars and programing with ease, it would be nice if at some point in time he (like millions of  his fellow countrymen) would actually wake up and see the lies all around him that start from the very top and work there way down. Our freedom is being pulled out from under our feet like a rug and yet those that we depend on, specially artists like this and any number of punk acts, are walking around buying the party line! If half of what is happening now would have happened while a rhino was in charge it would be all that Al and his friends would talk about! That said it's neither here nor there so these people will have to live with their hypocrisy and will sadly have a rude awakening all their own when any kind of political disagreement will be considered a crime. Back to this album we will go as there really is a lot musically to appreciate. Along with guitarist Sin Quirin, bassist Tony Campos and drummer Aaron Rossi the pair of Al and Mikey really put a lot into this release, effort-wise, as is obvious from start to finish. Here Ministry walks the line between industrial metal and thrash metal as if they are one in the same. Credit should go as much to his backing band as it does to Al as (all-together as a band) Ministry has served notice that album number 13 is every bit as soul crushing as all the rest. Only difference here seems to be the fact that Al leaned on Mike and his fellow band-mates as much as possible in an effort to make these 11 tracks pop-out and rip-out the listeners eardrums! If this is truly to be the last Ministry album then Al and company has gone out at the top of their game and they've done it in a way that serves as a fitting tribute to Mike Scaccia's skills.