Ministry’s ‘The Last Sucker’ turns 19 on 18 September
Ministry released “The Last Sucker” on 18 September 2007 through 13th Planet Records, produced by Al Jourgensen and Dave Donnelly.
Ministry released its eleventh studio album, “The Last Sucker”, on 18 September 2007 through 13th Planet Records. The album turns 19 this year. MusicBrainz lists a first-release date of 8 September 2007, while Wikipedia and Discogs both confirm 18 September 2007 for the US release; Side-Line marks the anniversary on the date corroborated by the two independent sources. Al Jourgensen and Dave Donnelly produced the album, recorded in May 2007 at 13th Planet Studios in El Paso, Texas, with John Bilberry engineering and Donnelly also handling mastering.
“The Last Sucker” closed the trilogy of anti-George W. Bush albums that began with “Houses of the Molé” (2004) and continued with “Rio Grande Blood” (2006). Jourgensen told Billboard at the time that he intended it to be Ministry’s final album, joking he would rather “leave on top of my game” than keep recording into old age; the band did not release another studio album of new material until “Relapse” in 2012.
What is on Ministry’s ‘The Last Sucker’
The album runs 11 tracks: “Let’s Go”, “Watch Yourself”, “Life Is Good”, “The Dick Song”, “The Last Sucker”, “No Glory”, “Death & Destruction”, “Roadhouse Blues” (a cover of The Doors), “Die in a Crash”, “End of Days (Pt. 1)” and “End of Days (Pt. 2)”, with a total running time of 55:58. Deluxe and promotional editions added remixes of “Watch Yourself”, “The Last Sucker”, “Die in a Crash”, “No Glory” and “Death & Destruction” as bonus tracks.
Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell provided guest lead vocals on “Die in a Crash” and both parts of “End of Days”. Paul Raven, formerly of Killing Joke, played bass and guitar and contributed backing vocals on several tracks; Prong and Danzig guitarist Tommy Victor played guitars and bass throughout. Sin Quirin and keyboardist John Bechdel also performed on the album. Closing track “End of Days (Pt. 2)” samples Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address on the military-industrial complex alongside a reprise of “O Fortuna”, which had opened “Houses of the Molé” at the start of the trilogy.
About Ministry
Ministry formed in Chicago in 1981, led by vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Al Jourgensen, the band’s sole constant member. The debut album, “With Sympathy”, released through Arista in 1983 in a synth-pop style Jourgensen later disowned, was followed by a move toward industrial rock on Sire/Warner Bros. releases including “Twitch” (1986), “The Land of Rape and Honey” (1988) and “The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste” (1989). “Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs” (1992) became the band’s commercial peak, reaching number 27 on the Billboard 200 and going platinum on the strength of “Jesus Built My Hotrod” and “N.W.O.”.
After “Filth Pig” (1996) and “Dark Side of the Spoon” (1999), Ministry signed to Sanctuary and released “Animositisomina” (2003) before launching its own label, 13th Planet Records, with “Houses of the Molé” (2004), the first instalment of the anti-Bush trilogy that continued with “Rio Grande Blood” (2006) and closed with “The Last Sucker” (2007). Bassist Paul Raven died in October 2007, shortly after the album’s release. Jourgensen revived Ministry for “Relapse” (2012) and Ministry’s ‘From Beer to Eternity’ turns 13 on 6 September (2013), the latter completed following guitarist Mike Scaccia’s death during recording. Ministry has continued releasing albums on Nuclear Blast, including “AmeriKKKant” (2018), “Moral Hygiene” (2021) and “Hopiumforthemasses” (2024).
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
