Ministry – From Beer to Eternity (2013)

Isn’t Ministry over? The spurs hung up last year? In 2007? Even longer in terms of relevancy or inspiration for some older fans no doubt anyway, right? For the past five years, the band’s all-encompassing front man, Al Jourgensen has been saying just this. No more Ministry and no more original Ministry music. Hmm. Seems you just can’t keep a good (or ageing, drug warped, bored or broke – whichever the new reason to produce another record) man down and even though it’s probably not surprising Al went back into the studio after 2012’s mediocre, Relapse (FBTE constitutes the trifecta of “final” albums for the band), the actual reasoning behind From Beer to Eternity is a poignant one and a worthy finale and epitaph. Not just for the band, but for Al and his long-time guitarist and collaborator, Mike Scaccia, who died on stage at the end of last year, just three days after finishing studio sessions laying down the rough tracks of this record. So in that sense, let’s hope this time, it is the end, allowing Jourgensen to redeem some of the band’s legacy with a surprisingly killer final long player.

So the album was going to come out anyway, but a “brother” was lost in Scaccia. The raw emotion his death stirred in Uncle Al pushed him to dig deep enough emotionally to rediscover the fire he once had, putting all those sessions into 11 brand new Ministry songs. The final product is a record with a level of consistency we haven’t heard from them in a long time and make no mistake; there is fire on this record. Not since 2003’s underrated Animositisomina has he produced an album that represents the unmistakable Ministry feel, sound or atmosphere. Houses of The Mole was close though. It and Rio Grande Blood were solid records with some great moments and even the disappointingly uneven The Last Sucker has tunes that wouldn’t feel astray as a Psalm 69 B-side for example, but none of them have contained the real spirit of the band in all honesty. FBTE evokes the golden years and if it wasn’t for a couple of tracks demonstrating that more trad metal, post-2003 sound we’re used to now, this could easily have fit alongside The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste or Dark Side of the Spoon.

None of that spirit is more evident than on the opening track, ‘Hail to His Majesty (Peasants)’. It’s worth noting that maybe why so much of this record feels so refreshing is that Al just doesn’t care anymore; what has he got to lose now? So when the first lines of FBTE are “I hate all you motherfuckers!” you can’t pick the usual sarcasm, because there just isn’t any. This album doesn’t like us. Al doesn’t like us, but that’s fine. Jourgensen should hate everybody more often if it means he’ll go back to well like he’s done here. Where’s the crushing riff or Dubya sample to set us off as we’ve come to expect now? Same old, same old. No, Al’s locked in a room alone with a synth and laptop for most of his time on this one. The opening few minutes made me think maybe I could be listening to Skinny Puppy some time in the 90’s. Warbling samples and a dub inspired beat begin the journey and before long a harsh vocal and riff wash in and out and it’s unmistakably Ministry. But 1989 Ministry. Samples are all over this record. In case you thought different, Jourgensen still knows industrial music, and track 1 throws down the gauntlet as one of the best made examples in recent memory.

‘Punch in the Face’ proves where the focus and exuberance for the majority of the album lies. It’s not so much about the lyrics or message as it is about the music. A vibe and an era or a sound that was totally unique to this band – that was created by them and influenced countless others. The track is fairly straight forward itself, but it assaults you. Made for the dance floor of all places, it is the sound a million industrial bands were making in the mid 90’s. So a bit of a throwback then, but it’s still actually better than what most could have hoped to produce in the movement’s heyday. Anyone who loved the scene back then will spin this track into oblivion.

As if to prove it’s all been too good to be true, the next three tracks are more akin to what Ministry has given us over the last four albums and sadly do little to overly inspire with worn out riffs and stumbling choruses. The use of Barack Obama quotes instead of George W. Bush also proves to be quite ironic on ‘PermaWar’. Al seems to be still going through the motions for some of the more metal tracks on FBTE but, he truly has dug deep and the weakest moments on the record remain much better than the weaker ones on those previous four discs. Global warming tirade, ‘The Perfect Storm’ (the best of the three), continues the grind with opening and closing moments of fury reminiscent of Rio Grande Blood. ‘Fairly Unbalanced’ blasts it’s way out of the gate and is easily the most thrash track on the album. Al has tried to recreate Psalm 69’s epic ‘Hero’ many times over the years and this is just another example and like the others, doesn’t come close to the intensity of that song. Not terrible, pretty forgettable, and not enough to ruin the whole experience, which sums up the previous two tracks as well. With the ‘singles’ dispensed however, track 6 returns us to the original agenda.

‘The Horror’ seamlessly surges from ‘Fairly Unbalanced’s ‘ riffage and once again, we’re in Skinny Puppy, almost Scorn territory. But also once again, with very dub inspired rhythms. A short experiment you may have found on The Land of Rape and Honey’s B-side roll maybe. Filler then? Perhaps, but I can’t reiterate how much this album’s real strength is its attitude and vibe. So no, it’s not filler in that respect and more of a bridge to the second, more impressive half of the album. ‘Side F/X Include Mikey’s Middle Finger (TV4)’ is a mouthful of a title, but all that needs to be said is that this is TV Song 5 and it lives up to that rare franchise of songs Al has been producing since 1992, even if it does feel a little laboured. Either way, it’s a demolition of thrash, screaming, samples and Scaccia solos.

‘Lessons Unlearned’ is like nothing Jourgensen has really produced under the Ministry moniker. With a glorious 90’s sound, we get female (!) choruses that work stunningly and if anything, this sounds like Ministry doing Naive era KMFDM via Tricky. Even though Al’s vocals struggle a bit during the verses, we’re rescued every time Patty Fox’s appear. The final (proper) two tracks are the real gems on From Beer to Eternity. Both run over seven minutes and both still aren’t long enough. ‘Thanx But No Thanx’ is pure Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste era of the band with slightly more updated guitar heaviness. Opening with a bass line that slinks all the way up your spine, we get “Sgt Major” reciting William S. Burroughs’ poem “A Thanksgiving Prayer” before a chugging riff takes us through to the closing bridge of dub fuelled industrial. This is the closest thing Al has come to making another ‘So What’ in structure and is possibly the best track on the album.

If it is though, ‘Change of Luck’ is right behind it. As if one sly worm of a bass line wasn’t enough, here another opens up the track and immediately we’re on that dub journey again as an acoustic guitar sample picks its way through the sonic wilderness. Much like a film score, I found myself getting lost in the first four minutes of this track. Once again, Ministry of a former era is evoked and as one of those long-time fans, trying to establish in words how much nostalgia a track like ‘Change of Luck’ brings is tricky to point of pointlessness. ‘So What’ can be heard here too, but also a strange mix of Revolting Cocks, KMFDM again as well as Patty Fox making another brief, welcome appearance. You’d be forgiven if you thought Paul Barker had stepped back into the studio for a few hours and laid down some grooves such is their old style sound. The ironically titled, two minute noise bender, ‘Enjoy the Quiet’ closes what has been a bewildering experience for any fan; dedicated, frustrated or indifferent otherwise.

I lamented enough on my review of Relapse on the change in the band over the last ten years and the inconsistency of it all so without trying to repeat myself, I did however write that; “you can (try to) cling onto the tad bit of hope it (Relapse) offers in terms of Uncle Al’s direction, but he’s still a long shot off producing another classic befitting the legacy”. Seems he was only about a year and one more death of a close friend off. Fitting then too, as this is the 13th album for the band and Jourgensen’s label is called 13th Planet records. It was meant to be. The planets were aligned. People had to (literally) die, but From Beer to Eternity is as close to classic Ministry as one could hope for in the 21st century, and giving crazy old Al the benefit of the doubt, should have long-time fans rubbing their ears in disbelief while they reach for repeat on their devices. #Ministry #MikeScaccia #FromBeertoEternity #Industrial #aljourgensen #13thPlanet