The track will be on the band’s forthcoming album via Nuclear Blast.
(TRR) – Ministry have unleashed a brand new track “Alert Level.” Band leader Al Jourgensen has re-entered the studio to create new material for a to-be-announced new album on Nuclear Blast Records. The provocative lyric video was created by Agent Ogden and can be streamed below.
The song is the first new material from Ministry in two years.
“We finished the song in January and it sounded great during rehearsals for our Australia/Japan tour dates, before we went into quarantine,” Jourgensen said. “The original plan was to finish the new record before the July ‘Industrial Strength’ US tour so we could have an Election Day release, but in lieu of the circumstances—and how relevant the song feels for these bizarre times—we decided to release ‘Alert Level’ now. Considering that this song features the question ‘How concerned are you?’ I’ll be interested to see how folks answer it themselves.”
With the release of “Alert Level,” fans are asked to be a part of the larger conversation by answering the question posed by the song’s central message, “How concerned are you?” Fans should upload videos, 30 seconds or less, to their social media profiles with the hashtag #MinistryAlertLevel. All the members of Ministry will be watching from home and selecting the videos most meaningful to them, which will be later shared.
Born in 1981 in Chicago, Ministry has been the lifetime passion project of founder Al Jourgensen, considered to be the pioneer of industrial music. In its early days, Ministry was identifiable by its heavy synth-pop material in line with the new sounds and technology that were being developed in the ‘80s. Ministry’s output began with four 12” singles on Wax Trax! Records in 1981 before the first LP With Sympathy in 1983 via Arista Records.
As time progressed however, so did Ministry, quickly developing a harsher, and more stylized sound that the band soon became infamous for on seminal albums Twitch (1986), The Land of Rape and Honey (1988), and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste (1989). With the release of Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and The Way to Suck Eggs (1992), Ministry hit an all time high in the mainstream musical realm and received its first Grammy nomination.
In total, Ministry has been nominated for a Grammy award six times. After an indefinite hiatus in 2013, Ministry’s latest album, 2018’s AmeriKKKant, continues to reflect Jourgensen’s views on the frightening state of society and politics.
With the latest lineup featuring Sin Quirin and Cesar Soto on guitars, John Bechdel (Killing Joke) on keys, London May (Samhain) on drums and Paul D’Amour (Tool) on bass, Ministry continues touring and recording in 2020 with new music and a few more surprises planned.