Ministry – Last Tangle in Paris 2012

http://youtu.be/P-bFm-DU5sc

Review by Jason Guest

UDR Records

Release date: 11 August 2014

The two words that appear at the beginning of this live DVD that sum up Last Tangle in Paris perfectly: ‘For Mikey’. Less than one year after the release of the absolutely-last-and-Al-definitely-means-it-this-time album from Ministry, From Beer To Eternity, as well as the Enjoy The Quiet – Live at Wacken 2012 DVD (both reviewed here), Ministry are back with another release. Chopping between live performance and rehearsal footage from 2012, a few home movies of the band sat around talking about whatever it is that bands deem important enough to talk about, as well as backstage footage, studio footage and tributes from band members, Mike Scaccia gets most of the screen time. And deservedly so. Without him, what would Ministry have been? And given what we see of him here – and the absence of Jourgensen during rehearsals and recording sessions – you’d be forgiven for thinking it was his band. But of course, this DVD is Jourgensen’s eulogy to Scaccia. And Ministry.

The live performance is up to the usual standard we’re used to from Al and his acolytes: tight, precise – mechanically so – and burning inside with all the political disgust that has fuelled Jourgensen for so long. While the rehearsal footage and the home movies, of which there is comparatively less, gives an interesting insight into the relationships the band members had, it’s the studio footage where we see how much Scaccia gave to the band. Interspersed with one-to-one interviews and Jourgensen telling of how he and Scaccia met and Ministry’s subsequent development, the DVD is as close to a biography of the band that we’re going to get at this point, and it’s a good one too.

With a setlist on both the DVD and the two CDs that spans the band’s career, there are a couple of omissions that perhaps let this down a little – ‘Stigmata’ and ‘Jesus Built My Hotrod’ would have been good additions – but it’s still a great collection of tracks that represent the best of what this band were about. As strange as it is to write about Ministry in the past tense, if this is the last we hear from the band, it’s a fitting tribute to what they achieved in their thirty two years, and especially to Mike Scaccia. Available in 2CD & DVD digipak (includes a Ministry tour retrospective double audio album with live performances dating back to 2006), BluRay & 2CD Amaray, 2 x Vinyl Gatefold 160 gram as well as digital audio and video and as simple CD package, make sure you get at least one of them.

8 out of 10

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Line Up:

• Al Jourgensen – lead vocal & guitar
• Michael Scaccia – guitar
• Sin Qurin – guitar
• John Bechdel – keyboards & samplers
• Aaron Rossi – drums
• Casey Orr – bass

Track listings: