N “GHOULDIGGERS,” THE OPENING TRACK OF MINISTRY’S TWELFTH STUDIO ALBUM, RELAPSE, AL JOURGENSEN DECLARES, “I’M NOT DEAD YET!” The song is aimed squarely at the breed of music industry suits
that inspired him to establish his own 13th Planet label in 2004 with his wife Angelina, but it also serves as a reminder – if you needed one – that Jourgensen is a survivor. No, really. Not just in the sense that he’s pre- vailed in the face of heroin-addled adversity
or that he’s forged a 30-year career in the fickle entertainment biz as one of the leading purveyors of industrial music, but be- cause he’s technically died three times. And he’s sung about it, through an overdriven effects unit set to a nightmare-scape of precision-guided drum detonations, corrosive guitar riffage, hor- ror movie samples, and scathing critiques of the American gov- ernment. Lately though, despite being clean for a number of years
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(well, sort of… read on), the residual effects of Jourgensen’s legendary hard livin’ have led to health scares. Maybe that’s why Relapse (out now from AFM/13th Planet) finds him in a contemplative mood, seemingly content enough in his own skin to experiment musically, and lyrically ad- dress both the demons he’s conquered and the ones he deems necessary to his con- tinued existence. In a publicity video for the album, the singer alternately calls Relapse
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the last Ministry record, the best Ministry record, and one of the 50 best albums of all time. While we can’t attest to it being the group’s finest hour necessarily, it’s def- initely a fierce yet decidedly looser musical outing – one that even finds Jourgensen questioning the effectiveness of the politically charged preaching he often does from his musical pulpit, without relinquishing his right to scream from it. The musician’s most recent brush with death also inspired
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the release of his long-promised “country core” side-project, Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters’ Bikers Welcome! Ladies Drink Free – a twangier, lighter-hearted album that eschews Ministry’s exacting aggro assault for simpler, tongue-in-cheek tunes about drinking, fighting and women. And then there’s FIX: The Ministry Movie (on DVD April 10
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from Blairwood Entertainment), a documentary that takes such an unflinching look at what transpired onstage and, most shock- ingly, backstage during Ministry’s 1996 Sphinctour (Jourgensen
shoots hard drugs on camera for starters) that some legal issues needed to be ironed out between the filmmakers and Jourgensen’s camp before it could be released. But maybe we ought to turn the mic over to Uncle Al. Hell, he’s come and gone three times, why keep him waiting?