According to the liner notes of Black Box, WaxTrax! Records moved from Colorado to a storefront on Chicago’s North Lincoln Avenue in 1978 after being “fueled by the punk revolution.” WaxTrax! issued its second single in 1981, featuring Divine of Pink Flamingos and Polyester fame. Also, in 1981, the record store and recording studio released “Cold Life” by Ministry. “Cold Life” and a second Ministry ditty, “Everyday (is Halloween)”, are considered to be new wave synth pop tunes, and quickly became dance floor staples upon their release. WaxTrax! added a bevy of talent in the 80s, including but not limited to, KMFDM, Cabaret Voltaire, Front 242, and a Ministry roadie named Trent Reznor. In fact, Reznor recorded Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut” with Ministry during the WaxTrax! heydays.
Skipping ahead to 2013, Ministry, one of my all-time favorite bands, released From Beer to Eternity, an authoritative blend of industrial metal, a style that merges rock, sampling, and programming. Over the last three decades, Alan Jourgensen, the leader of Ministry, has written, collaborated, recorded, and produced an impressive array of rock music. Jourgensen worked with Jello Biafra in Lard. Check out Pure Chewing Satisfaction and The Last Temptation of Reid, which appear on Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label. Jourgensen also paired with Belgian WaxTrax! member Luc Van Acker in Revco. But it is Ministry that I like best.
In 1986, Ministry released Twitch that combined the synth sound with rock. Jourgensen added his guitar and bassist Paul Barker two years later to create a harder edge with two defining records, i.e., The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and The Land of Rape and Honey. Thus, Ministry became a pioneer of the industrial metal sound.
Jourgensen and Barker continued their industrial legacy into the 90s with Psalm 69, Animositisomina, and Dark Side of the Spoon. Simply put, great stuff. Jourgensen then parted ways with Barker, and the stolen election of 2000 motivated the Ministry mastermind to create the magisterial “Bush Trilogy.”[1] This included Houses of the Molé, Rio Grand Blood, and The Last Sucker. He paired with guitarist Michael Scaccia during this period.
Scaccia combined with Jourgensen and others, including William Burroughs, to issue Ministry’s “final” release, From Beer to Eternity. (Click here, https://www.facebook.com/Ministry?ref=stream&hc_location=stream, and scroll to the November 25 entry to listen to Burroughs’s lyrical contribution.) The guitars, sampling, mindset, deprogramming, and programming found on Ministry’s 2013 release may be the band’s best, ever.
[1] Click here, https://www.facebook.com/Ministry?ref=stream&hc_location=stream, and go to the December 24th entry wherein “Uncle Al” reposted his 2007 Christmas poem that encapsulates his sentiment toward the Bush Administration.
