Last week, fans were surprised to hear that three years after calling it quits, frontman Al Jourgensen was bringing Ministry back to life. At the time, all we knew was that Ministry was confirmed to play the Wacken Festival next Summer. In an exclusive to Metal Hammer Magazine, though, Jourgensen revealed a lot more details about Ministry’s return.
In this exclusive piece, Jourgensen confirmed that the band is recording a new album called Relapse and that touring will follow its release. He also confirmed that guitarists Mike Scaccia and Tommy Victor (Prong), bassist Tony Campos (Soulfly, ex-Static-X), drummer Arron Rossi (Prong) and John Bechdel (Killing Joke) would return to the lineup as well.
In regards to what triggered Ministry’s return, Jourgensen said the following:
“While I was working on [the Buck Satan record], me and Mike Scaccia from Rigor Mortis fucked around to pass the time and we had like, 5,6,7 songs and I didn’t really want to do anything with them but Mikey was like, ‘dude these songs are awesome.’ They weren’t country, they were more like Ministry. So he’s coming by in September and Tommy Victor’s coming by in October with Tony Campos and we’re gona finish up and put out another Ministry album by Christmas called Relapse.”
Jourgensen did reveal that because of his recent health scare [in March 2010, he had seizure and lost 65% of his blood], Ministry’s tour schedule will not be as intense as in the past, saying:
“The doctors told me to keep it light so we’re doing four shows in the States next June. The Nokia theatre in LA, the Vic theatre in Chicago – we’ll add second shows if those sell out – Denver at the Ogden Theatre, and one night at the Nokia theatre in New York and that’s our whole American tour. That’s it. And then we go to Europe and I’m gonna do a couple of festivals and club shows. We’re gona do a limited tour, it’ll be like 5/6 weeks. Maybe 20, 21 shows and just see how it works.”
So there you have it: Ministry will be back on the road with new music. What lesson have we learned from Ministry’s return? Never say never.
