Industrial/Crossover band

Members

• Alain 'Alien' Jourgensen: vocals, guitar, electronics
• Paul Barker: bass, vocals, programming
• Rey Wesham: keyboards
• Louis Svitek: guitar

History

Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker met in Chicago, early 1981, when Jourgensen produced an album for Barker's band The Blackouts. Always game for a side-project or two, Al proposed to do a single for the Wax Trax! label under the name "Ministry"; a name which they take from the movie "Ministry of Fear". Cold Life is sort of a synthipop/new wave affair, quite different from the intense claustrophobic sounds that would characterize their later efforts. Shortly after its release, Ministry, now a proper band of sorts, released their full length debut With Sympathy on Arista. The album is laden with glossy synth pop with a slight Chicago House feel. Jourgensen, who commemorates the debut as 'an abortion', attributes this to intrusive involvement by the record company. A rather interesting question, and record industry joke, remains why Jourgensen felt the urge to fake a British accent on the album's lead vocals..

1988's The Land Of Rape and Honey first displayed the musical ideas that would earn the band a place in rock history. The Land.. succesfully combines grinding thrashmetal riffing with harsh industrial music, a genre rarely associated with guitars at that time, and danceable electro beats. On the follow-up album The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste Jourgensen cs. consolidated their brave new style.

Ministry finally broke into the mainstream at the beginning of 1992 with Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs (an outtake from Aleister Crowley's Book of Lies) at the support of which they headlined the Lollapalooza festival. The record sports an even more grim and low down sound as their previous records. Psalm 69, considered by many to be their artistic zenith, offers an interesting collaboration with Butthole Surfers-frontman Gibby Haines in the form of the hit single "Jesus Built My Hotrod", alongside modern classics as "Just One Fix" and "N.W.O.". The single-version of Just One Fix gueststars beat writer William S. Burroughs on the song Quick Fix.

Drug problems pushed back the follow-up Filth Pig for another four years after Psalm's astonishing success. The album added little to what the audience already knew about the band, with the notable exception of Bob Dylan cover, "Lay, Lady, Lay". Jourgensen, an avid country & western fan, intended to do a version of Glen Campbell's "Witchita Lineman" instead, but changed his mind when Urge Overkill beat him to it.

Apart from the unremarkable release of Dark Side of the Spoon and the suicide of guitarist William Tucker, Ministry didn't turn a lot of heads in the late 1990's. For a sustained period of time both of the band's official websites were dead. Their only life sign being a guest appearance in Stanley Kubrick/Steven Spielberg's A.I. as well as a soundrack contribution. The first signs of sustained life came in 2002, when the band signed to Santuary Records (a label notable for harboring former greats). After the release of the live DVD Sphinctour, the band announced that a new album, Animositisomina, is scheduled for release in February, 2003.

Discography

• With Sympathy (Arista Records 1983)
• Twitch (Sire Records 1985)
• Twelve Inch Singles 1981-1984 (WaxTrax!/TVT Records 1987)
• The Land of Rape and Honey (Sire Records 1988)
• The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste (Sire Records 1989)
• In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (Live) (Sire Records 1990)
• Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs (Sire Records 1992)
• Filth Pig (Warner Bros. 1996)
• Dark Side of the Spoon (Warner Bros. 1999)
• Sphinctour (Sanctuary Records 2002)

Side projects

The members of Ministry have been involved in a virtually undocumentable number of sideprojects, all with very colorful names. Below is a selection and description of the most memorable ones, their most important members and some of their records.

Revolting Cocks (a.k.a. RevCo)
Members:

Min"is*try (?), n.; pl. Ministries (#). [L. ministerium. See Minister, n., and cf. Mystery a trade.]

1.

The act of ministering; ministration; service.

Thomson.

2.

Hence: Agency; instrumentality.

The ordinary ministry of second causes. Atterbury.

The wicked ministry of arms. Dryden.

3.

The office, duties, or functions of a minister, servant, or agent; ecclesiastical, executive, or ambassadorial function or profession.

4.

The body of ministers of state; also, the clergy, as a body.

5.

Administration; rule; term in power; as, the ministry of Pitt.

© Webster 1913.