Variety’s interview with Jello Biafra makes mention of him working on the new Ministry album and this is the first time I’ve seen it receive a title.
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California Uber Alles was an anti-Jerry Brown rant, not an anti-Reagan rant. Reagan hadn’t been governor of CA for six years at that point.
And Biafra has since said that Brown wasn’t so bad after all.
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It’s been retooled several times to stay relevant to the times/events of the day.
On “In God We Trust, Inc” they released a version with the swanky lounge lead in. Look up “We’ve Got A Bigger Problem Now”. But, yes, the FIRST release of the song on “Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables” was the send up of Jerry.
Here’s the tracklisting. It’s out October 1:
Alert Level
Good Trouble
Sabotage Is Sex
Disinformation
Search And Destroy
Believe Me
Broken System
We Shall Resist
Death Toll
TV Song #6 (Right Around The Corner Mix)
Based on song title alone, I’m predicting this one to feature Jello Biafra.
Pass, hard pass, but have fun with it though.
Kinda looks like a cover that would come out of Jello’s label.
Industrial metal pioneers MINISTRY will release their 15th studio album, “Moral Hygiene”, on October 1 via Nuclear Blast Records.
Containing some of MINISTRY’s strongest and most inspired material to date, the 10-track follow-up to 2018’s “AmeriKKKant” is frontman Al Jourgensen’s societal manifesto and plea for civilization to get back to a set of standards that lives up to and embraces our humanity.
Says Jourgensen: “The good thing about literally taking a year off from any social activity or touring is that you really get to sit back and get an overview of things as they are happening, as opposed to being caught up in the moment. And what I saw with how we handled several public crises — from the pandemic to racial injustice to who we vote in to lead our country — is that times are changing, and society needed to change to get away from the idea that has permeated us of take care of yourself, fuck everything else. Now more than ever we need moral hygiene. It consumed me as I wrote this album. It’s not some pious term. It’s what we have to return to in order to function as the human species on this planet. And I’m proud to have had such great guests on this album to help cement that message like Billy Morrison, Jello Biafra and Arabian Prince.”
In conjunction with today’s album announcement, the track “Good Trouble” has been released. The song, inspired by the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and the activist work of the late congressman John Lewis, is accompanied by a new video that includes sampling from last year’s demonstrations in Los Angeles as captured by Jourgensen and his partner Liz Walton.
"Moral Hygiene" also includes the previously released “Alert Level” that sounded the alarms about our collective dissonance towards the pandemic, climate change and the man formerly in the White House, bolstered by the song’s overarching question posed to listeners: “How concerned are you?”
The new album also adds perspective to the countless lives that were tragically lost to the COVID-19 pandemic on the haunting track “Death Toll” while “Disinformation” describes the too frequent willingness to accept everything — even mistruths — as fact.
Other musical jewels on the upcoming release include a collaboration with Jello Biafra (Jourgensen’s cohort in side project LARD) on “Sabotage Is Sex” and a unique take on THE STOOGES’ “Search And Destroy” that features guitar virtuoso Billy Morrison (BILLY IDOL, ROYAL MACHINES). Morrison is also heavily featured on a number of songs on the album.
"Moral Hygiene" was recorded with engineer Michael Rozon (also behind the boards on “AmeriKKKant”) at Scheisse Dog Studio, Jourgensen’s self-built home studio and creative lab. As with all MINISTRY albums, all songs are written and performed by Jourgensen. Additional contributions come from Morrison, Cesar Soto (MAN THE MUTE), John Bechdel (KILLING JOKE, FEAR FACTORY), Roy Mayorga (STONE SOUR, SOULFLY, NAUSEA), Paul D’Amour (TOOL, FEERSUM ENNJIN), Arabian Prince (N.W.A.), Jello Biafra (DEAD KENNEDYS) and sitar player Flash.
"Moral Hygiene" will be available in CD, vinyl and digital download formats.
"Moral Hygiene" track listing:
- Alert Level
- Good Trouble
- Sabotage Is Sex
- Disinformation
- Search And Destroy
- Believe Me
- Broken System
- We Shall Resist
- Death Toll
- TV Song #6 (Right Around The Corner Mix)
That press release is so fucking cringey.
I miss the good 'ol days when I had no idea what a Ministry song was about and we weren’t told.
Now we kinda get treated like retarded kids being primed for the T/F safety test before we can operate a hammer in Wood Shop.
“This next song is called ‘Republicans Bad’ and it’s about how Republicans are bad and how they’re not good because of the bad stuff they do which is bad!”
And then they drop some really heavy and deep lyrics…
“Republicans are bad! That makes me mad! Donald Trump Sr. is Don Jr’s dad! Guess what? They’re both bad! This makes me sad! Fascism is a fad and that’s not rad! Fauci makes me glad I put a mask on my nads!”
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Pretty much everything about Ministry is cringey now. I have no real interest in the “band” anymore other than to halfheartedly mock Jourgensen. I mean it’s going on 20 years since anything solid, Houses, was released.
Without barker this is what it will always be…
And that IS a shame!
Just listened to Alert Level and Good Trouble again. I’m looking forward to hearing the section of the new album which contains some of Ministry’s strongest and most inspired material to date. Strange decision to promote the album with 2 piss-weak tracks then. If nothing else, I’m sure TV Song #6 is gonna sound fresh and groundbreaking. 
I do have to say the singles are frequently the weakest tracks, at least as far as 21st century Ministry goes.
True. Not only that, but they pretty consistently sideline the BEST tracks (i.e. “Change of Luck” and “Thanx But No Thanx” on “Beer to Eternity”). People judging solely by singles and setlists would not likely be as big of fans as those who actually dig into the albums a bit.
And Ministry videos of the last 20 years . . . . holy hell, just fucking don’t.
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Can’t remember whether “Double Tap” or “99 percenters” was the first single off Relapse, but the former was a pretty solid single even if it isn’t the best track on the album. As for the follow-up, I’d say “PermaWar” is about the only (semi)weak track off From Beer To Eternity (a.k.a Ministry’s best album since Animosity), Man, what a treat that album is!
Now Amerikkkant… I basically find it so dull I never get through it, but I do enjoy “Antifa” and “Victims Of A Clown” - and unless I’m terribly mistaken, these and the forgettable “Wargasm” were all singles from this yawnfest of an album. I hope and pray that they really did pick the weakest tracks for singles again for Moral Hygiene. But it can’t be ALL bad anyway considering track #3 will hopefully feed us more LARD-lite. Damnit, I KNOW they are capable of raising the bar again, considering almost all AL-albums post 2010 have been excellent - the Buck Satan record, Relapse and From Beer To Eternity, then the SMM album… so far the only rotten egg is Amerikkkant. I just hope quality albums didn’t go out the door with the untimely demise of Mike Scaccia and Sammy D being sold with the Texas compound in the divorce settlement. 
I don’t remember which was first, but “99 Percenters” hurt badly because it was released with a video. A really really really really shitty video, haha. Even THAT song isn’t bad musically. It’s just that if someone wants to savor the lyrics like it’s some kind of elite literature, they’re going to blow a fuse.
Agreed about “Permawar”. Lyrically it’s stupid (of course) and Al’s geriatric Cookie Monster vocals are beyond embarassing.
I can probably see how people might find “Amerikkkant” boring. I think I kind of like that. It’s not the balls-to-the-wall party disc like “Relapse” and I have a hard time remembering anything very specific about any of the songs, but I’ve enjoyed it as a driving album and more of an atmospheric piece than a pumped up aggressive rally. I keep losing that one and hopefully can find it and give it a revisit.
Hopefully I can find SMM too. I don’t remember liking that one much except for a few (“I’m Invisible”, “Gates of Steel”).
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That’s why I like Amerikkant. It’s slower and doomier than what he’d been doing for most of the previous decade.
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I just wish it had riffs! It’s such a letdown from the previous albums; every song has the most basic guitar playing imaginable with a puny sound to boot. The “soundscapes” are basically fine, although the amount of orange monkey in the samples make me want to puke. I’ve heard/read his dumb crap in every media outlet here in europe for the last 5 years, and when he’s finally gone I have a hard time putting on a CD repeating his ramblings again!
Yes! This is often what endears me most to a Ministry album… when Al changes direction, even when that direction is NOT what the masses want. Everyone seems to have their expectations of what Ministry SHOULD sound like and it’s a matter of hoping the next album sounds like their favorite(s) from the past.
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