With Ministry on the verge of disappearing the vaults are opened once more and this time around Jourgensen and Co decided to release a live CD/DVD package entitled, Enjoy The Quiet – Live At Wacken 2012.
Enjoy The Quiet is a rather awkward beast. The main feature is a 58 minute professionally filmed live gig at Wacken from Ministry’s last touring line up, including band alumni like John Bechdel, Sin Quirin and the recently departed Mike Scaccia. The set-list contains mainly tracks from Houses Of The Mole (‘No W’, ‘Waiting’), Rio Grande Blood (title track, ‘LiesLiesLies’) and Relapse (‘Ghouldiggers’, title track) accompanied with some tracks from the band’s more illustrious past like ‘Thieves’ and ‘Just One Fix’. Despite Jourgensen and Co giving it their all the crowd response is ambivalent at best. It’s only when the older tracks get played there’s some reaction. Another thing that becomes painfully clear is the almost zombie-like appearance of Al Jourgensen himself. The long years of substance abuse seem to have caught up with him physically. Despite the professionally filmed gig and top notch sound this live registration is somewhat of a let-down, mainly because of the lack of energy and the reluctant crowd response.
The real magic is with the bonus material. It contains raw and unedited footage from Ministry’s gig at the Wacken festival back in 2006. Despite the raw quality it shows a band that is really firing on all cylinders. The bulk of the set-list comes from the earlier mentioned Houses Of The Mole and Rio Grande Blood with the older tracks being virtually the same as from their 2012 gig. The historical significance lays within the fact that bassist Paul Raven (who died in 2007) is a part of this line-up and it also features Joey Jordison of Slipknot of fame and Prong’s Tommy Victor. The live registration as a whole is over 75 minutes long and this would have been a better choice for the main event than Ministry’s 2012 gig.
Despite the fact that this package comes with live CD’s as well, I do miss a section with a behind the scenes documentary and interviews with various band members to give the viewer a nice look in the proverbial Ministry kitchen. This would have been a golden opportunity to add never seen before interviews with Paul Raven and Mike Scaccia, so Enjoy The Quiet would have been a truly special document. As it stands now, it’s just another live registration that’s only interesting for Ministry completists. A missed opportunity is the best I can say about Enjoy The Quiet – Live At Wacken 2012.
6/10
Raymond Westland
Ministry – Facebook