[kj] Raven will be touring with Ministry, apparently ...

[meddle]

from:  http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/1567333/20070816/ministry.jhtml

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 08.17.2007 8:01 AM EDT

Ministry 'Riding Off Into The Sunset' With Bush; 
Plus Animosity & More News That Rules, In Metal File

'This is definitely a fitting end to it all,' Al 
Jourgensen says of band's retirement.

by Chris Harris and Jon Wiederhorn
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Ministry's Al Jourgensen (Photo: Steffab Chirazi)
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"Obviously, my muse for the past six years has 
been George W.," Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen 
admitted recently, "and he's going to be riding 
off into the sunset soon, so I figured I'd just go out with him."

That's right ­ Ministry's

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September 18 disc, The Last Sucker, will indeed 
be their studio-album swan song.

"Everyone seems to think I make sh--ty records 
when there are Democrats in office," he laughed. 
"Since I'm really on the top of my game right 
now, it would be nice to end on a high note 
instead of keep releasing sh--ty albums well into my 60s," he added.

Of course, Jourgensen isn't about to fade away 
without blasting a final cache of 
industrial-metal ammunition at the White House. 
The Last Sucker is venomous and brutal, filled 
with caustic riffs, political sound bites and 
ranting, distorted vocals. The new LP 
incorporates elements of Ministry's finest 
albums, including the mechanized precision of 
1988's The Land of Rape and Honey; the blowtorch 
fury of 1992's Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed & the 
Way to Suck Eggs; the hazy, lumbering fear and 
rage of 1996's Filth Pig; and the 
shovel-to-the-skull thrash and anti-Bush bile 
presented on 2004's Houses of the Molé and 2006's 
Rio Grande Blood. However, while Jourgensen 
admits The Last Sucker provides a comprehensive 
closing chapter to the story of the band he 
formed in Chicago in 1981, he insists he wasn't 
making a conscious effort to write the equivalent 
of an on-the-deathbed flashback.

"Me, [Prong guitarist] Tommy Victor and [Prong/ 
Killing Joke bassist Paul] Raven just went in and 
jammed, and the only idea that we had going in 
was that we didn't have any ideas," Jourgensen 
said. "This is definitely a fitting end to it 
all, but that's just the way it came out. There's 
a couple songs left on a shelf somewhere in case 
I die in a plane crash and they want to release 
outtakes, but for the most part, we picked out 
the ones that made the record flow in a way that, 
as it turned out, encapsulated the Ministry sound."

Jourgensen and his cohorts started writing The 
Last Sucker in February and finished tracking the 
album in June. In part, the rapid pace of 
production was necessary for Jourgensen to adhere 
to his tight schedule. As soon as he finished the 
album, he started putting songs together for an 
upcoming disc of Ministry covers ­ some new, some 
old ­ called Cover Up. The disc will feature 
numerous guests, including Static-X's Wayne 
Static (singing "I Want You [She's So Heavy]" by 
the Beatles); Cheap Trick's Robin Zander (singing 
Golden Earring's "Radar Love"); Fear Factory's 
Burton Bell (Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb"); 
and Victor and Mountain guitarist Leslie West 
(Mountain's "Mississippi Queen"). Cover Up will 
also include previously released covers of Black 
Sabbath's "Supernaut," Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady 
Lay," the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" (which is on 
The Last Sucker) and Magazine's "The Light That Pours Out of Me."

As if that's not enough, Jourgensen is currently 
producing and playing on the debut album by 
Ascension of the Watchers, Bell and Fear Factory 
keyboardist John Bechdel's new band. And Al is 
also getting ready to start working on the final 
Revolting Cocks record, which is due next year.

"In the '90s, I was releasing a new record every 
three years," Jourgensen said. "Now we do records 
in three to six months at most and just work our 
asses off. The old Ministry records took a long 
time partially because of drug-induced lethargy, 
but also because I was still learning my craft 
and experimenting with a lot of things. A lot of 
it wouldn't work and I'd scrap it and end up 
wasting, like, three weeks of time on a single 
thing. But now we're a bunch of old grumps and we 
know what we want, we know what we sound like, 
and we're pretty comfortable in our skins. So we 
can have a good time and still knock out a record 
really quickly that everyone's 100 percent happy with."

Ministry will support The Last Sucker with one 
final worldwide tour with a lineup including 
Jourgensen, Raven, Victor, guitarist Sin Quirin 
(Revolting Cocks), drummer Jimmy DeGrasso 
(ex-Megadeth) and keyboardist Bechdel. But while 
Jourgensen is looking forward to the tour, he 
also looks forward to putting the lid on the Ministry coffin.

"Man, I'm so looking forward to not being the 
front guy on a brand name," he said. "When I was 
growing up, I loved Led Zeppelin, and I always 
wanted to be Jimmy Page. But I ended up being 
Robert Plant by default. I was the singer and the 
frontman when I always wanted to be ­ like in 
'Wizard of Oz,' the guy behind the curtain. I get 
so much more done when I'm on the sidelines, and 
it's more suited to my personality. I'm a studio 
rat. I always will be. And now I'll be able to 
do, like, six projects a year, so it's actually 
much better. You'll actually get more sick of Al 
Jourgensen faster than if I was to keep doing 
Ministry. So I view this as my second career, not a retirement."


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