The era of rebellion, revolution and push for radical change – Ministry
From the second that George Bush Senior was elected as the president in the worlds most Powerful country, Ministry focused there efforts towards denouncing the Bush Administration and promoted political change as a key issue… in a direction away from the republican ways of the newly elected president.
From 2001 onwards, Al Jourgensen and his notorious drug fuelled band mates had cleaned up there act (Al going to rehab for his problem), and started to work on material with a more serious point than anything they had ventured into before.
In 2004, Al Jourgensen, front man and mastermind of Industrial band Ministry and Revolting Cocks, started work on an album named ‘Houses of the Mole’. It was Jourgensen’s purpose in this album to broadly poke fun and incriminate the two bush Administrations, and the problems they had caused for America.
This was a pivotal point for the group, who had previously worked through dreadful stages of drug abuse and consequent addiction (At the time producing albums based around personnel experience), to push the boat out to take a more serious stance against the “New World Order” that was building up around them in the country they used to love.
Therefore in 2006, the album “Rio Grande Blood” was produced and distributed. By now Al was so adamant to get his message across to America that he took most of the production upon himself, playing many of the instruments and sampling all by himself.
The song Rio Grande Blood is one of Al Jourgensen’s more risky numbers from his back catalogue, as it highlights the problems America has with George Bush’s extensive need for “Crude Oil”, as one of the many samples used throughout the track would tell you.
Then came “The Last Sucker”. Al Jourgensen claimed that this album would be his last set of original songs to be recorded with the band he had such a passion for… Ministry. On this one he really went to town.
“The Last Sucker” is the crème of all ‘goodbye’ albums. Mixed with enough angst to make even the most stubborn republican see some truth in what Al is saying, and enough aggression to make that little bit of differenced that would be crucial at the time in America, “The Last Sucker” was perfect in the eyes of many. It reached Eighth position in the Top Independent albums chart, and highlighted individual members of the cabinet, such as Dick Cheney, for making Americas problems worse.
Finally, in 2008, George Bush left office. Al Jourgensen celebrated the election of democrat Barrack Obama in an interview found at the bottom of this page by saying that if another Republican got in, he would have had to sell his compound… which is his house, studio and whole life.
This just shows the seriousness of Ministry’s message in their latter years. Ministry ended, at the right time, at a time when Americas first Black President is elected, and America may be, just may be, able to be trusted again by musicians such as Al Jourgensen!
Posted on June 17, 2009 | Filed Under Music
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