8/10/2019 UC Chicago

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UR CHICA

A fter nearly three decades of writing,recording and touring, Chicagoindustrial-metal legend Al

Jourgensen stated his latest album, The Last Sucker , is the nal chapter in theMinistry legacy. Although this is the end ofan era for Jourgensen and his fans, itmarks the dawn of an even more proli ctime—creatively and professionally—forthe 48-year-old musician, record labelowner, producer, wine a cionado andChicago expatriate.

“I just see these bands hanging on waytoo long and making crappier and crappiermusic and just doing it for the money. I justdidn’t want to go that route,” Jourgensensays, referring to his band’s dissolution. And his decision comes at an appropriatetime: The Last Sucker , the third album in aseries of releases (including 2004’s Housesof the Molé and 2006’s Rio Grande Blood )attacking the Bush administration, dropson Sept. 18, seven days after the anniver-sary of 9/11.

“I really feel we are doing our best work—if not ever, at least in years and years—with the new lineup we’ ve had overthe last two records,” Jourgensen says ofthe album. Much like the last two records,The Last Sucker is a politically chargedmanifesto as crushing and abrasivelyrically as it is musically, rarely taking amoment to slow down.

Throughout his career, Jourgensen hasexperimented, grown and changed, but theingredients for a tried and true Ministryrecord are all here: insanely heavy riffs,danceable electronic drums, and drivingrhythms, all held together by Jourgensen’s

R E V E R B : F E AT U

Watch YourselfMinistry’s finAl recording MArks the end of chicAgo’sindustriAl pioneers

by stephen kane

trademark guttural scream. Tracks like“The D ick Song,” “The Last Sucker,” and“End of Days Part 1 and 2” chastise theBush/Cheney administration, correlatingtheir war agenda directly with thedestruction of not only the United States,but the world in a detailed account ofapocalypse. It’s a suitable end for a band whose career has spanned four presidents,two wars, terrorist attacks and constantglobal unrest.

The Last Sucker also marks anotherrelease for Jourgensen’s constantlyexpanding record 1abel, 13th Planet.Initially a vehicle for his projects, the labelhas morphed into a full- edged machine,complete with recording studio andpractice space, which he owns andoperates in El Paso, Texas. The shift frommusician to producer to entrepreneur is a welcome return to his days of owning WaxTrax!, the visionary industrial label thatalso spawned the Chicago record storebearing the same name.

“Ministry takes up a lot of time,” says Jourgensen. “Between two months oftalking to you knuckleheads, seven monthsof touring and seven months in the studio,it takes a year and a half for me to getthrough a Ministry cycle. I could be doingsix to seven projects in a year by doingother stuff.”

Currently, he’s nishing up productionon the nal Revolting Cocks record, gettingready to release the new Prong album Power of the Damager and working onBurton Bell of Fear Factory’s latest ambientproject, Ascension of the Watchers. In thecoming months he will also begin

composing the soundtrack to a horrormovie, Wicked Lake, and will releasealbum of cover songs (likely in April 2set to coincide with Ministry’s nalshows in Chicago. “I enjoy working wother people, so doing all these otherside projects and production is great fome. That’s what I want to do anyway,” Jourgensen says.

Surprisingly, the Ministry frontmanbecome something of a red wine enthast, a passion he unearthed whilerecording in El Paso after kicking a lenstint of heroin abuse. “The owner of thstudio was a complete red wine connoseur,” Jourgensen says. “[I] didn’t wanrelapse, so he suggested I try a glass o wine with dinner every so often. He retaught me the ner points of it. I’ ve nrelapsed, but now I probably spend momoney on really decent wines than I evdid on heroin.”

Though he only periodically collec wine, there are some he feels are truly worth the money. “An affordable, realgood bottle is a French wine from theBordeaux region of the year 2000,” he“It’s probably the best year they’ve hasince about ’75.”

Although the The Last Sucker sthe end of Ministry, it is by no means adeath rattle for Jourgensen or the bandthat’s been his primary focus for the pa26 years. Rather, it’s an explosive nallegendary band retiring at the top of itsgame. But is this the end, or merely a nbeginning? “I don’t know, ask me in a10 years,” Jourgensen says. “I’m still rin the middle of it.”