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New York — Before there was Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson or Fear Factory or Rammstein, before the term industrial rock was used to describe music that combines electro-collages of avant-garde mechanical sounds with the sound of rock ‘n’ roll and metal: There was Ministry. And after 45 years, the innovative band wants to call it quits.
Founder Al Jourgensen, the group’s mastermind and only regular member, wants you to know that it really means it’s over – done, done, goodbye – after releasing their 17th album “Hate To Go – Take Out Or Delivery” on October 30 and a tour to follow.
“It’s time to go,” he told The Associated Press from his home outside Los Angeles. “Everybody says it’s their last tour and they’re back next year. Or they say it’s their last tour and they’re back for the next 20 years. The Rolling Stones are in their 90s.
For his band, this is truly the end. There are a few reasons for that.
The music business has changed, for one, and Jourgensen and his band don’t see Ministry progressing within their algorithmic framework. And there are sociological and political reasons for the decision: “We’ve been talking about the same stuff for 45 years. Nothing has changed,” he says. “It’s gotten worse, so it’s time for a new generation to carry the torch because they’re not listening to our message.”
The band has long released songs with strong anti-authoritarian and anti-fascist sentiments, and that continues everywhere on “Hate to Go,” from the brooding “Voices of Hate” to “Delete,” which focuses on the ways that endless scrolling and social media erode attention and reinforce negativity.
The problem with speaking truth to power is, of course, that “every canary in the coal mine dies,” Jourgensen says with a laugh.
“We are very happy with our decision” he paused, he said. “We are very happy with our career.”
When a band takes ownership of their own head, something interesting happens: A final album can be a statement, not a funeral – a bow at the end of an amazing career. For Jourgensen, there were a few things that needed to happen on “Hate to Go.” Bassist Paul “Ion” Barker, Jourgensen’s bandmate in Ministry and Revolting Cocks from 1986 to 2004, was welcomed back into the fold for the album’s final track, “We’re Still Here.”
And specifically, the record had to reflect their multi-year run, to look like a summary of Ministry without leading to easy parody. “There are elements of hard heart, there are elements of environment, you have your standard social commentary and your portrayal of society at the time,” he says. “It’s a perfect ministry album. It’s like a best-of album without any hits. It’s just wrapped up beautifully.”
But it also sounds like the future, like so many previous Ministry records. For some of the songs as well as the music videos for “Hate to Go,” Jourgensen used artificial intelligence, perhaps controversially using the new technology to simulate the voices of famous people — effectively, President Donald Trump’s voice on the unhindered “Grifter.”
“It’s a very dichotomous feeling for me,” he says of using the polarizing technology. “We’re fighting fire with fire. Trump puts out his little AI videos every day and we put out our AI videos.”
Think of it like the early trials of Ministry. “I remember when we started cutting tape, very similar to the likes of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin … on celluloid to make our music in a metal landscape. That was exciting, back then,” he says.
Using AI in a unique application was another tool, but one he found difficult.
It’s a theme that appears a lot on the album, as in “Singularity,” a reference to the technological idea that AI could one day surpass human cognitive abilities and reverse self-improvement.
“It doesn’t seem like science fiction anymore,” he says. “The tiger is out in the lab, out of the cage, and they can’t control it.”
The ministry will officially throw in the towel on October 30, 2027 – a year after the release of “Hate to Go” – with a big concert in Los Angeles. Jourgensen ensures there will be tons of special guests – “a fun mic drop” – but attendees will have to wait and wonder who will show up.
After that, well, he has other plans. “I’m the Greta Garbo of business,” Jourgensen jokes, referring to the great actress who retired young and lived happily into her last decades. “I have a piece of land a couple of miles away from my house where I just go herding goats and deny that I’ve ever been in a band.”
How long does the legacy go? It wasn’t something he spent a lot of time thinking about, either. “Everyone always asks me like, ‘Well, what do you want Ministry to be remembered for?’ And the whole point is, no,” he says. “I don’t want them to remember us. It’s time for someone new, and it’s time to get out. We did what we could.”
Or, even more simply put: “Later!” he laughs. “I hate to go!”
