The Last Sucker was Ministry's last official full-length, with frontman Al Jourgensen saying he didn't want to be "doing crappy Aerosmith and Rolling Stones albums 30 years later." After 2006's absolutely wonderful Rio Grande Blood, I didn't think Ministry could get any better. They had regained their industrial footing and at the same time added a strong dose of brutality that had been missing from the band's other recent releases. But, again, I was wrong--The Last Sucker capitalizes on the aforementioned album in every way and manages to throw in a few new twists and turns along the way.
The album opens with "Let's Go," which has a speedy industrial sound like something you would expect to see on an album by Jourgenson's Jello Biafra-fronted side project, Lard. It's a perfect and energetic way to open this monster record. Needless to say, like Rio Grande Blood and 2004's Houses of the Mole, this album is front to back a scathing attack on the then-reigning Bush Administration and marks the end of what Jourgenson calls his "Bush Trilogy."
The third song, "Life Is Good" is a brutal thrasher documenting a shell-shocked soldier's return home from Iraq only to find that "home" just isn't home anymore. The fourth, and my personal favorite track, is titled "The Dick Song" and is about exactly what you would assume it is. An absolutely crushing riff kick starts this vicious attack on Dick Cheney and Jourgenson holds back nothing--just a sample, the chorus includes the line "Dick Cheney is the son of satan." Easily one of the best and effective protest songs of the previous near-five years of wartime at the time.
Later in the record the listener gets yet another gem--a devastating cover of "Roadhouse Blues," originally by the Doors. The cover is so good that I actually PREFER this version to the original! And this is coming from a Doors fan!
Other highlights on this album include the collaboration with Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell on "Die in a Crash" (resulting in a very different, almost punk rock sound) and the direct George Bush attack "The Last Sucker."
While Ministry would follow The Last Sucker with respective covers, live and remix albums, this was officially their last studio album hurrah. And considering it, I couldn't think of a better way for Ministry to go out.