The Last Sucker

Performer: Ministry
Engineer: John Bilberry
Producer: Al Jourgensen; Dave Donnelly
Distributor: RED Distribution

Notes: Personnel: John Bilberry, Al Jourgensen (drum programming). Billed by Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen as the band's final album, THE LAST SUCKER also rounds out the long-running industrial-metal group's anti-government trilogy, which also includes HOUSE OF THE MOLE and RIO GRANDE BLOOD. As on those outings, Ministry attacks the policies of the George W. Bush administration with a ferocity that is perfectly reflected in its searing, guitar-laden sound. Bolstered once again by guitarist Tommy Victor (Prong) and bassist Paul Raven (Killing Joke), the ensemble thrashes through the stinging "Let's Go" and a pummeling rendition of the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues," and sets its sights on the Vice President with "The Dick Song," a lumbering number that features the tongue-in-cheek, yet pointed line "Cheney's got a gun." Like a pistols-blazing last stand in a Western movie, SUCKER finds Ministry unloading plenty of sonic ammo before riding off into the sunset.

Spin (p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Jourgensen can still pile on the jackhammer beats and clever samples." Kerrang (Magazine) (p.53) - "Featuring the same colossal line-up as RIO GRANDE BLOOD this easily ranks among their finest albums." Kerrang (Magazine) (p.48) - "[U]unremittingly intense, dipping into Ministry's past....The album works superbly as a dense and compact whole."

Though Chicago's Ministry is known as the archetypal industrial rock band, they actually started out as a dour synth-funk outfit before founder Alain Jourgensen really ratcheted up the noise and the gloom on 1988's THE LAND OF RAPE & HONEY. In so doing, Ministry became the template for scores of industrial bands to come, combining roaring, metallic guitars, distorted, demonic vocals, and relentlessly pounding electronics. By the '90s, they were alt-rock icons, getting heavy play on MTV and appearing at the Lollapalooza festival. Even after Jourgensen's musical partner Bill Rieflin left in 1994, Ministry continued making dark, disturbing music for their legions of admirers.

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