Review Ministry – Hate To Go – Take Out Or Delivery

So this is supposed to be it: With „Hate To Go – Take Out Or Delivery“, the final MINISTRY album is on the table. At least if mastermind Al Jourgensen sticks to his plan this time. Because we remember: almost 20 years ago, MINISTRY already went on a farewell tour, wittily titled „C-U-LaTour“, with their „last“ studio album „The Last Sucker“. As is well known, five years later came the relapse („Relapse“), which in total gave MINISTRY fans six more studio albums and the re-make „The Squirrely Years“.

With the latter, Al Jourgensen once again returned to his synthwave roots in 2025 – to the material from „With Sympathy“ and the early Wax Trax singles. He does not look quite that far back with „Hate To Go – Take Out Or Delivery“. But as with „Hopiumforthemasses“, this album also has a certain old-school vibe musically. Visually, unfortunately, not at all: however grim Uncle Al may look in the portrait photo – for a final MINISTRY album, given the magnificent cover history with artworks such as on „ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ“, „Dark Side Of The Spoon“ or „Rio Grande Blood“, one would have expected more. In fact, any other illustration from the album would have had more charm – be it the inner sleeve with the dark staging of the „Ministry Diner“, which closed in 2026, or the back cover with Jourgensen as a barmaid and a row of dictators at the counter.

Maybe Uncle Al does not actually look grim – just annoyed, or rather: resigned. At least that is how he sounds when on „Hate To Go – Take Out Or Delivery“ he once again states the obvious („We Follow Crickets“) and, quite aware of this, is once more preaching only to the converted. This time, however, all the lyrics are imbued with a melancholic gloom. No wonder: all his life, Al Jourgensen has fought with his art for a better world. He has witnessed the decline of the USA from the (viewed in retrospect through rose-tinted glasses) free world power to a chaotic autocracy with fascist traits. Next to Donald Trump, Al’s former arch-enemy George Bush, to whom he dedicated an entire album trilogy, looks like an exemplary statesman.

However hard Al tries to sound defiant, angry and incendiary – in the end even the most extreme prophecies and soundbite samples no longer shock anyone: how could they, when for years we have been numbed day after day by the madness of the world like fakirs on a bed of nails.

Unfortunately, it is similar with the music: while the blunt heaviness of „Rio Grande Blood“ was spectacular at the time, „Clown Car“ may sound similarly ferocious – but the shock effect is missing. Nevertheless, as a classic MINISTRY track and with its adapted Martin Luther King quote („I Have A Dream That One Day We Would Be In Cars Not Driven By Clowns …“), the song is one of the album’s highlights. Otherwise, over a good 46 minutes the Americans have a lot of the expected, but unfortunately also a lot of mediocrity, to offer: „We Hate“, as a midtempo number, is exemplary – not only for this album, but for the work of MINISTRY as a whole. True hits, or even just songs that stand out or stick in your head, you look for in vain.

Fortunately, the musical decline feared by Al Jourgensen is nowhere to be found on the latest album either. Musical stagnation, however, is another matter – and not even the much-anticipated addition of Paul Barker to the band changes that. Having played a major role in shaping the band’s sound in the late 1980s, his involvement, contrary to what had been announced, is limited to a single song (“We’re Still Here”). Perhaps that is actually quite a good thing for a final album: had MINISTRY of all times reinvented themselves again now, it might have sown doubts about the decision. And at some point it simply has to be enough. In this sense: fare thee well, Al – and thanks for the noise!

Publiziert am 10. November 2026 von Moritz Grütz