R.I.P. Ministry: "It's Been An Unbelievable Experience"
Friday May 02, 2008 @ 04:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Ministry (photo by Ash Newell)

After a nearly three-decade career that changed and shaped the course of metal, Al Jourgensen and Ministry — who took industrial music mainstream — are calling it quits.

Jourgensen is in the middle of his final North American Ministry jaunt with guitarists Sin Quirin and Tommy Victor (who also fronts Prong), keyboardist John Bechdel, bassist Tony Campos (who also plays with Static-X), drummer Aaron Rossi and guest vocalist Burton C. Bell (frontman for Fear Factory and Ascension Of The Watchers). After this tour ends, Ministry will play a few European and South American shows before they cease to exist.

While the band members respect Jourgensen's decision to put Ministry to rest, they say they wish it didn't have to end. Victor says Ministry may continue without Jourgensen as an offshoot featuring himself, the rest of the group's current roster and Bell.

"I worked on the last three records with Al, and I thought things were going really good and really building upwards to explode again and really be great again," says Victor. "Not to sound like a capitalist or anything, but it's going so well, and you work 20 years to get to a point like this, and to pull the plug on something that's working so well makes me unhappy."

Jourgensen is Ministry's only original member. Victor has been in the band since 2005. Quirin was brought on board a year later to help record Ministry's final studio album, The Last Sucker, the third installment in Jourgensen's anti-George W. Bush trilogy that also included 2004's Houses Of The Mole and 2006's Rio Grande Blood.

"It's been an unbelievable experience for me working with him in the studio," says Quirin, who was originally a Ministry fan before he joined the band. "I learn something from him every single day. He's definitely made me a much better player, a much better listener and just a better musician overall."

Jourgensen is a veteran with a lot to teach other musicians. He formed Ministry in 1981 as a new wave/synth pop project with drummer Stephen George. Their With Sympathy debut was full of sunny, keyboard-inflected pop and was vastly different from their current brand of noisy, aggressive, industrial thrash. Jourgensen has described With Sympathy as "an abortion of an album," and has been open about how unhappy he was with Ministry's musical direction at the beginning of his career.

Jourgensen parted with George in the mid-'80s and began experimenting with the electric guitar. He enlisted new members and Ministry released The Land Of Rape And Honey, one of the most influential metal albums at the time. It was a groundbreaking combination of noisy guitars and bass, samples, drum machines, abrasive vocals and lyrics that criticized everything from U.S. politics and religion to genocide and environmental degradation. Jourgensen developed a massive following with Ministry and such side projects as Revolting Cocks (who also include Quirin) and 1000 Homo DJs. He's influenced everyone from Fear Factory and Nine Inch Nails to Marilyn Manson, Korn and Slipknot. This influence also extends to members of Ministry's current roster, especially Victor.

"They were the first ones to have that guitar styling that we know of — the staccato style [mixed] with heavy beats and grooves with electronica, and everyone's been really influenced by that whole movement," Victor says, pointing out that Prong's music incorporates some of these elements. "Everyone started doing that… it absolutely had a big influence on everybody that was playing hard rock then."

Ministry's final contribution is Cover Up, a collection of 11 covers. The disc includes their previously released versions of Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay," The Doors' "Roadhouse Blues," Black Sabbath's "Supernaut" and newly recorded interpretations. Officially listed as an album by Ministry And Co-Conspirators, it features guest appearances from Bell, Static-X's Wayne Static and others.

This isn't the end for Jourgensen. He'll keep recording and touring with Quirin in the Revolting Cocks. Their Sexo Olympico album should be in stores by September. Quirin says fans should listen for "I'm Not Gay," a new RevCo track that's played every night on the current C U LaTour before Ministry take the stage. Jourgensen will also continue to produce and release records through his 13th Planet label. Among those signed to the imprint are Burton's Ascension Of The Watchers (who also include Bechdel), who released their Numinosum full-length debut in February. Bechdel is in a band called False Icons and Quirin says he may record solo material in the future. Victor says Jourgensen may produce the follow-up to Prong's Power Of The Damager.

Ministry will make their final Montreal appearance at Metropolis on May 3 and will say goodbye to Toronto at the Kool Haus the next night.

—Kate Harper