Ministry & Co-conspirators: Undercover

Greatest hits and covers mangled and milked for all they’re worth.

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Like 2008’s Cover Up – and what happened to that being Ministry’s final album? – this is a collection of industrial classics retooled by Al Jourgensen and associates.

Some are a hoot, like their slaying of Iron Man, Paranoid and Purple Haze. Some are unnecessary like Sharp Dressed Man and Paint It Black (not as good as the other Stones cover Under My Thumb on Cover Up). And by rerecording Jesus Built My Hotrod, Stigmata and NOW, Al gets to snatch back the copyright from the Man.

It’s like a return to the golden age of the early 90s, when some Ministry-related product was released every 10 minutes, ranging from bad taste covers to works of heart mulching genius. You know what you’re getting with Ministry: proper fucking machine noise disco. Long may comrade Jourgensen flog this dead horse.

Tommy Udo

Allan McLachlan spent the late 70s studying politics at Strathclyde University and cut his teeth as a journalist in the west of Scotland on arts and culture magazines. He moved to London in the late 80s and started his life-long love affair with the metropolitan district as Music Editor on City Limits magazine. Following a brief period as News Editor on Sounds, he went freelance and then scored the high-profile gig of News Editor at NME. Quickly making his mark, he adopted the nom de plume Tommy Udo. He moved onto the NME's website, then Xfm online before his eventual longer-term tenure on Metal Hammer and associated magazines. He wrote biographies of Nine Inch Nails and Charles Manson. A devotee of Asian cinema, Tommy was an expert on 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano and co-wrote an English language biography on the Japanese actor and director. He died in 2019.