Ministry – Hate to Go (Take Out or Delivery)

When an American rock band announces its own farewell, you usually want a tissue first. With Ministry, you get a sledgehammer. On “Hate to Go (Take Out or Delivery)”, the seventeenth and, according to Al Jourgensen, definitively final album, there is one last round of shouting, stomping and dishing it out. Anyone who thought the godfather of industrial metal would mellow after 45 years is very much mistaken.

Jourgensen started Ministry in Chicago in 1981, initially as a synth-pop band, before building a niche of its own in the rock world alongside his long-standing collaborators. Albums such as “Psalm 69” made the band big, while “Everyday Is Halloween” remained a club legend. Saying goodbye is nothing new for him either. After “The Last Sucker” in 2007, he already promised that it was all over, but that did not last long. Now he says his ears are tired and that it is time to go and herd goats. Whether you believe that is up to you, but the album certainly sounds like a man who means it.

The nine tracks are short on breath and produced with uncompromising brutality by Jourgensen himself. “Crickets” opens without beating about the bush, with a wall of guitars, while “Voices of Hate” cranks up the pace with tight drumming from Pepe Clarke, who plays on this album alone. In “We Hate”, the tempo drops instead, with a lumbering riff that seems straight out of the Black Sabbath handbook. That track sticks with you, particularly because of the guitar solo. “Singularity” seems primarily concerned with a world in which machines and money have an increasingly powerful say, while “Clown Car” and “Grifter” reveal where Jourgensen is taking aim: liars, opportunists and a country that, in his view, is increasingly veering off the rails.

The finest moment comes when Ministry briefly takes its foot off the gas. “Burned Out” leans on vintage synth sounds and recalls the early years, with a hint of the gritty “Filth Pig”. Then “We’re Still Here” closes the album with former member Paul Barker, who appears on a Ministry record for the first time in 23 years. It feels like a handshake between two old mates looking each other in the eye one last time.

Still, the album has its weak spots. Subtlety is not its strong suit, nor does it want to be, but the message is sometimes repeated so often that you almost find yourself begging for a break. The spoken samples hit home, but occasionally come across as preachy. And there is little that is genuinely new. Anyone familiar with the band’s recent albums will mainly hear a familiar sonic world that has been given another thorough polish. It is not a masterpiece as a testament, but it is an album that can still bite.

Perhaps that is exactly what a farewell should be. No tears and no polished closing song, just a band walking out the door with the volume turned up to ten and looking back to shout something one last time. The fact that Ministry will subsequently tour Europe with Die Krupps only makes it more fun. Grab your headphones, turn them up loud and give Uncle Al his final show. (7/10) (Cleopatra Records)