Review: Ministry "That Last Sucker"...What The Fuck, Al?

No cover art for this one as it's a leak.

Wow.

Wow, Ministry...just what have you done? I've listened to this record several times since I downloaded it so very excitedly the other night, and I can honestly say I haven't been this disappointed by a release in a long time.

I've been a fan of Ministry since my early childhood, having been raised on metal from an early age by my dad. I went on a dry spell from them for a while, but in the last couple years had realized just how absolutely fucking heavy and powerful they were and had gotten back into them again. I stuck mostly with Psalm 69 and The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, though Filth Pig wasn't half bad either. Last summer, I went and saw them on tour with the Revolting Cocks and it was hands down one of the greatest live shows I've ever seen. Ministry shows are a total mindfuck, both visually and aurally. My ears were ringing for three days.

The album they were on tour to support, Rio Grande Blood was not only one of the most incredible, but most surprising releases of that year. On Rio, Ministry ditched the industrial, instead going for a pure speed-metal record that absolutely killed. The album doesn't let up from start to finish, it's probably one of the best metal releases of the last year or two for me.

So...what the hell happened here then? I mean, to be blunt...this record sucks. It almost seems like they tried to go back and do an in-between speed metal and industrial record and just ended up with this bland nu-metal flavored crap instead. The riffs are weaker, the production sounds a lot less full than it did on Rio..., and the lyrics are much weaker as well. I'm hoping the bad sound can be explained by the fact that I downloaded a leak, but I really don't see it changing that much in the next two weeks.

There is one song that actually jumped out at me as any good on the whole record, and that is "The Dick Song," a tirade against our fair Vice President, that was not only a welcome piece of musical power, but a return the the clever and biting sampling and lyrical style of Rio....

I'm not as good at writing bad reviews as I am at good ones, but I can say this: this is a weak record. Weak all around. Songwriting, production, everything. It would've been better to end it with the last record, as all this does is weaken the legacy of an incredible metal band. All I can do, really, is try to forget this album and hope they stick to playing older material on their farewell tour.

Final verdict: 3/10