There is something unsettling about Ministry, and perhaps there always has been…
Their trashing, industrial, dance-metal has forever been intertwined with heavy drug use (heroin in particular) and its unlikely bed fellow; politics. Given the less than happy events that marked the Phoenix Park shows two weeks ago, you might expect a flurry of negative activity given the electricity that Ministry send out to their sweaty, pierced, and darkly-clad audience. The fervour and angry energy that Ministry exude is purely cathartic, and despite the rawness of the band’s presence, the crowd were all pulling in the one, oddly positive direction.
Ministry have risen from the ashes, so to speak, in the last two or three years. Having played a few farewell shows in Dublin in 2008, the band supposedly split up for good. But they’re back in action and their new album, ‘Relapse’, seems to be a return to the thrash of old. On Wednesday last, the band deafened and enthralled the Irish wing of their loyal fanbase.
Their set, of course, was awash with some of the new tunes, and the lead off single from ‘Relapse’, ‘99 Percenters’, came with the band’s trademark vigour and politicism. The rest of their set was choicest cuts from their 12 album strong back catalogue and unsurprisingly enough, their encore was almost entirely of tracks from their infamous Psalm 69: ‘The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs’ record. Naturally, they were loud, very, very loud. But it’s all part of the Ministry experience.
Ministry have been quietly (or not so quietly) plodding along since the early 1980s and they’ve lost very little of their fire in those thirty or so years. Al Jourgensen has gained some piercings, some tattoos, and a little weight, but he can still guide a crowd and can still make your hair stand on end. As if we ever doubted it.
Ministry Photo Gallery
Photos: Aled Owen-Thomas
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