Album Review: From Beer to Eternity by Ministry

Nobody, up to and especially including Al Jourgensen, expected people to have to have the "better to burn out than fade away" debate about Al Jourgensen. Arguably the father of industrial metal, Jourgensen spent the vast majority of his career redefining debauchery and abusing every narcotic he came across. After thirty some odd years and albums, and after two previous escape attempts, Jourgensen is apparently closing the book on his primary band Ministry, after the death of his "best friend" and guitarist Mikey Scaccia, with From Beer to Eternity. Judging by the (godawful) album art, it would seem not much has changed. Al Jourgensen appears to remain either the provocateur or jester he always has been depending on who you ask. But an album, like a book, should not be judged by cover alone. So what of the music?

If From Beer to Eternity's primary purpose is to serve as a memorial to Scaccia, it succeeds. His guitar sounds as raw and distorted as it ever has under the Ministry banner (time will tell how it sounds on the final Rigor Mortis release, which I personally am desperate to hear) with even better production than ever. Although he played on the previous disc Relapse as well that album doesn't highlight the guitars quite the way this one does. This is vintage Ministry akin to The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and really brings the metal flavor back to the band. The problem with the disc unfortunately lies with the other major player, the aforementioned Mr. Jourgensen. Whereas the instrumental sections are as visceral and nasty as ever, the lyrics have taken a turn for the juvenile and impotent. That's when he chooses to write lyrics that is. Nine times out of ten, he resorts to samples and lets his targets hang themselves. While they certainly don't deserve anything more than that, you're not going to find me defending Fox News from "Fairly Unbalanced", we as fans should and do expect more than that from Al. If lyrics are printed in the booklet, one would be forgiven for assuming they simply reprinted the title to the song "Punch in the Face" over and over again because that is essentially all there is for words. It isn't as if Thieves was a Burroughs poem (although plenty of his works have been sampled, especially on the last few discs), but his power with words has slipped regardless. "Change of Luck", the album's penultimate track, was billed as Jourgensen's farewell to Scaccia, but personally speaking I got nothing from the lyrics in terms of how he felt about him. Especially disappointing.

If this was a transition release from the band's comeback on Relapse into bigger and better things, Jourgensen might be more easily forgiven. Grief cannot easily be discounted either. But given how productive tracking sessions for this disc with Mikey apparently were, I just wish a bit more inspiration had come through in the words. As it is, the disc at least ends Ministry on top overall. The legacy remains mixed, but ends on a positive note. After a career like theirs, I suppose that's all we should be asking for.