{"id":31831,"date":"2013-09-11T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T12:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=31831"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:37:53","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:37:53","slug":"ministry-beer-eternity-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/ministry-beer-eternity-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministry | From Beer To Eternity<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Ministry\u201cNot only is it Mikey\u2019s last parting shot, it\u2019s my last parting shot,\u201d Al Jourgensen confirmed yet again last week, this time in his interview to Loudwire magazine. \u201cI am not doing another Ministry record without Mikey. Zero. None.\u201d <\/p>\n

Guitarist Mike Scaccia, whom Jourgensen describes as the driving force behind the record, died onstage playing with his band Rigor Morits three days after Ministry have completed sessions. A sudden heart attack sealed not only Scaccia\u2019s fate, but also that of one of the greatest metal and industrial music acts. And perhaps the greatest when it comes to the sheer courage of their scathing social and political commentary. <\/p>\n

It is true that Jourgensen has been making various \u201cwe quit\u201d announcements for five years now, but now he sounds adamant that this is needed the end. The music, however, grew more intense since the band began teetering on the edge of dissolution. The 11-track offering in hand may not quite match the ferocity of its 2012 predecessor Relapse<\/em>, but the songwriting focus stays just as sharp. <\/p>\n

Opener \u201cHail to His Majesty\u201d comes through as surreal and as urgent as the best of the band\u2019s past masterpieces: pumping guitar riffs, eerie electronic noises, trance-inducing ostinato grooves, and Jourgensen\u2019s voice screaming out of the depth of our collective animal heart. Haunted, phantasmagorical, and powerful \u2013 the band here gives you the distilled essence of their lifeblood. <\/p>\n

Their intuition for aligning all kinds of influences too stays impeccable. Pop choruses next to epic guitar riffs, roiling thrash grooves, spoken word, electronic samples, Middle Eastern allusions, and even 70s disco all become partners when drenched in waves of Jourgensen\u2019s dark apocalyptic premonitions. Together they end up painting a full-color panoramic vision of the Western society\u2019s obsessions, syndromes, and also its likely fate. The prognosis feels ghoulish, but Ministry never sounded so fluent and so compelling. <\/p>\n

Some would call this record a swan song, but the image emerging here resembles more a pterodactyl in full flight: otherworldly, menacing, fascinating, and driving home fundamental truths as old as life on Earth itself. <\/p>\n

Genre: Metal, Industrial<\/p>\n

Personnel:
\nAl Jourgensen \u2013 vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass guitar, drums
\nMike Scaccia \u2013 guitars
\nSin Quirin \u2013 guitars, bass
\nTony Campos \u2013 bass
\nAaron Rossi \u2013 drums<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1. Hail to His Majesty
\n2. Punch in the Face
\n3. PermaWar
\n4. Perfect Storm
\n5. Fairly Unbalanced
\n6. The Horror
\n7. Side FX Include Mikey\u2019s Middle Finger (T.V. 4)
\n8. Lesson Unlearned
\n9. Thanx but No Thanx
\n10. Change of Luck
\n11. Enjoy the Quiet<\/p>\n

Label: 13th Planet<\/p>\n

Online: http:\/\/thirteenthplanet.com\/ministry<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai – Senior Columnist — \u201cNot only is it Mikey\u2019s last parting shot, it\u2019s my last parting shot,\u201d Al Jourgensen confirmed yet again last week, this time in his interview to Loudwire magazine. […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[2267,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-31831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-metal","9":"tag-ministry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}