Recorded during their
Relapse tour,
Enjoy the Quiet: Live at Wacken 2012 captures
Ministry performing in front of a huge, 75k audience, and with four live albums already in their discography (the last being the 2009 "farewell" live album
Adios...Puta Madres), this one justifies its existence mostly on size, but also on heartfelt sentimentality. The latter comes from the fact that this is one of the band's last performances with guitarist
Michael Scaccia, who died five months later on-stage of a heart attack while playing with his other band,
Rigor Mortis.
Scaccia was a huge influence on leader
Al Jourgensen in the band's later years, influencing
Al to re-form and revive the group, and put the project to rest once again after the guitarist passed. As such,
Enjoy the Quiet is the metal-fueled
Ministry at full power, hating on Republicans with thrashtacular political protests like "No W" and "N.W.O." The angst-injected anticipation number "Waiting" ups the thrash dose in this performance, with
Scaccia letting out his inner
Slayer as
Jourgensen sneers and simmers, and even if many of these cuts have shown up on previous
Ministry live albums, the performances here are generally tighter, tenser, and yet still held in check by the most skilled set of musicians to ever join
Al's army. Whether or not fans enjoy the heavy, heavy metal "feel" of this lineup depends on what era of the band they cherish the most, and those who can't make up their minds get some help on the limited edition, which adds a bonus disc of the group captured at Wacken in 2006. ~ David Jeffries
