When Al Jourgenson decided earlier this year that he was pulling the plug on Ministry it's fair to say there was a genuine sense of loss; that music was losing a true character in Al and in Ministry a flag-bearer of a genre. Always challenging conformity and the establishment, you could always rely on Ministry to say what needed to be said with a suitably well aimed size ten to the bollocks of their targets.

And so it is that Ministry bid farewell with 'The Last Dubber', a remix album featuring new versions of their last album proper 'The Last Sucker'. As you'd expect from Ministry members, having lent their skills to God knows how many remixes of other artists, they aren't really gonna fuck up some of their own, with Clayton Workbeck of Jourgenson's long other project Revolting Cocks doing the remixing honours on most of the tracks. Whilst this album might only appeal to completists, there's plenty of quality on offer here to recommend getting this. The general vibe of the album is somewhat darker than 'The Last Sucker' (which fair play was a very high point to finish their career proper on) with many of the tracks having a real claustrophobic feel to them, due in no small part to the oppressive loops and effects which are employed throughout the album. The slicing guitar riffs still come through though and Al Jourgenson's venomous prose still punctuates the pounding rhythms which accentuate the songs in their new incarnations.

A track listing is a bit pointless as it's basically every track off 'The Last Sucker', with two versions of 'Let's Go' and 'The Last Sucker'. I'm a bit torn as regards my final opinion of this.  On the one hand it is a very, very good album in its own right. On the other, I've never been a huge fan of remix albums, especially when the original is so fucking good, and as I've mention earlier 'The Last Sucker' really was top drawer. Either way get it, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

So there it is, So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye. The Sound of Music was altered forever by Ministry. This is a worthy farewell, and what a legacy they leave behind.

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