Ministry - From Beer to Eternity (2013)

Ministry are back again. The band seems to have more false endings than Peter Jackson's The Return of the King, but with an album like this, you will hear no complaint for me. From Beer to Eternity is quite simply the most varied album Jourgensen has put together under the Ministry name and it's superb.

The opening track Hail to His Majesty (Peasants) paves the way for what's to come. This is a more experimental Ministry that's not afraid to mix lots of elements in one song. Overall the album has a dirty sound, with dark sleaze grooves, electronica, incursions into reggae/dub and the pounding guitars that have become their trademark. 

It's hard to pick songs as the songs are very varied and this is an incredibly solid album. My personal favourites are, the Filth Pig era sounding Permawar, the angry brutal Fairly Unbalanced (a kick in the balls directed to Fox News) with The Horror as a dub-like epilogue, the surprising Lesson Unlearned and the two epics at the end (Thanx But No Thanx and Change of Luck) which make use of reggae and middle eastern sounds. 

Mike Scaccia, a long time guitarist for Ministry and according to Jourgensen the driving force behind the sessions that became this album, died three days after the recording sessions were done. It was left to Jourgensen to cobble the sessions together into a presentable form. I have to say that Mike Scaccia would be proud, this is Ministry at its best, unexpected, experimental, hard hitting and dirty.

Rating: Heavy Rotation