Ministry Tickets

Ministry
The Land of Rape and Honey ? Album that propelled Ministry to stardom and the band broke to mainstream popularity which includes multiple victories. Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, it changed its style to industrial metal that brought it mainstream success in the early 1990s.

Founder of the band, Al Jourgensen, began Ministry in Chicago, Illinois in 1981. The original line-up of Ministry consisted mainly of Jourgensen for vocals and keyboards and Stephen George for drums. The Ministry's original sound was more melodic than the aggressive music for which Jourgensen would become known. In the incarnation of Jourgensen and George, Ministry produced four 12 singles on Wax Trax in 1984. Album full of melodic pop ?With Sympathy' was their first LP issued on Arista Records in 1983, and hit the upper 90's in the Billboard Top 100.

Jourgensen, later on, made the most significant change in Ministry's history when he became re-enchanted with the electric guitar; he had taken up years earlier. He also brought bass guitarist Paul Barker of ?The Blackouts' into the Ministry camp. Barker would remain Jourgensen's bandmate for many years. With the addition of The Blackouts drummer William Rieflin, Ministry recorded The Land of Rape and Honey in 1988. The Land of Rape and Honey is an excellent example of Ministry's music, making use of synthesizers, keyboards, EBM sequences, tapes, jackhammering drum machines, unconventional electronic processing, and, in parts, heavy distorted electric guitar and bass.

The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste was just as acclaimed as The Land of Rape and Honey. Following the previous album, this too included similar tight, thick soundscapes but was slightly harder with Jourgensen's heavy metal-influenced guitar more emphasized. Due to the complex nature of the album's drumming, a second drummer, Martin Atkins, was used. The album Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste was supported by the ?RollerBall' tour through 1990 which was also documented on In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up. Burning Inside, Thieves and So What were the three hot singles of the album.

With many of its hit singles, Ministry left behind the high profile music bands of the age. Throughout the late 1980s Jourgensen and Barker expanded their ideas beyond Ministry into an endless parade of side projects and collaborations. Many of these bore Ministry's signature sound as well as the duo's ?Hypo Luxa/Hermes Pan' production imprint. Ministry's alter ego, the Revolting Cocks was the foremost of these projects.

Jourgensen and Barker produced Lard with Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, Acid Horse with Cabaret Voltaire, 1000 Homo DJs with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, PTP with Chris Connelly and Pailhead with Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi. Later, Barker released his own material as Lead Into Gold and Jourgensen played electric guitar on Skinny Puppy's Rabies LP.

In 1991, Psalm proved to be another gem with many hit singles like ?Jesus Built My Hotrod'. It was a hit chartbuster music video on MTV, and the band scored second billing on the Lollapalooza tour and managed conveniently to steal the show. The sound of Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs was the most metal-oriented Ministry had put to record at the point when the focal point of the sound shifting from synths to Jourgensen's and new members Mike Scaccia's and Louis Svitek's electric guitars.

The band issued their next album, Filth Pig, not before 1996. For Filth Pig, Ministry stripped all synthesizers and most samples from their style. They made their music entirely with ultra-noisy guitars, heavy bass, and real drums. The songs were played mostly at slower tempos giving it an almost doom metal feel. Jourgensen would later consider Filth Pig one of Ministry's best records and commented in RIP Magazine that record companies won't pay him in crack, they make him go buy it on the street. It has also been speculated that Filth Pig was an attempt to deviate from the ?industrial' label of the band's music.

After 27 years of electric performing, Ministry has decided to call it quits in 2008.