Man, how the mighty have fallen. I have been a fan of Al Jourgensen's many projects since about, oh, 1987 or so. There were the best of times (the mighty 'Land of Rape and Honey', the powerful 1989/90 tour with the all-star band)..Hell, even 'Twitch' was a momentous LP for me. I kinda lost track with 'Filth Pig', 'Dark Side Of The Spoon', 'Animositisomina', et al, as Jourgensen and Barker, it seemed, had stagnated. Fast-forward to about a decade later. Barker is gone, having moved on to the fine U.S.S.A. and other ventures (including the highly-anticipated Flowering Blight). In his (sorely-missed, if you ask me) absence, Al gathered another motley group of metal-heads (and the awesome Killing Joke bassist Paul Raven, RIP brother), and bashed on Bush for 3 albums, which I thought were pretty good, really - incendiary and packed with ultra-fast thrash metal. So here it is, 2008, and Jourgensen has announced the 'end' of Ministry. This collection of covers is the supposed swan song, and man, it sucks balls. Where do I start? The rowdy rock of 'Bang A Gong' and 'Radar Love' are positively idiotic. 'Black Betty'? Pointless. 'Supernaut' is re-hashed yet again. It was cool when it was 1000 Homo DJs for Wax Trax! back in 1990 or so, but here, re-released for the fourteenth-or-so time is just plain lazy. 'Roadhouse Blues', voxed by Fear Factory mainman Burton Bell, is taken from the LAST Ministry CD (why??? It was less than a year ago!), and Jourgensen even dips into the Barker days, re-releasing their dandy cover of Dylan's 'Lay Lady Lay' again. The best here is the finale - a very Ministry-sounding 'What A Wonderful World'. The rest of the disc has guest vocals, flat production, and truth be told, most of it sounds nothing like Ministry should. Bleah. Sorry, but I think this is 12 steps back. (Thirteenth Planet)
Another listen a few days later and I am amazed at how awful this one is...I am sad.
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