Ministry

Ministry started in Denver at a time when synth-pop was just starting to get off the ground in a meaningful way. But Al Jourgensen wisely moved to Chicago when the Wax Trax label was starting up and more or less creating the influential Chicago electronic and industrial sound that would...

By Tom Murphy

June 14, 2012

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Ministry started in Denver at a time when synth-pop was just starting to get off the ground in a meaningful way. But Al Jourgensen wisely moved to Chicago when the Wax Trax label was starting up and more or less creating the influential Chicago electronic and industrial sound that would subsequently prove to have worldwide impact — partly through the efforts of Ministry, which became one of its flagship bands early on. The act's sound changed profoundly when Jourgensen teamed up with former members of experimental Seattle band the Blackouts. Long before Nine Inch Nails, Ministry established industrial rock as a commercially viable form of music through groundbreaking albums such as 1988's The Land of Rape and Honey and the even more mainstream Psalm 69 in 1992. (Stop by backbeatblog.com for a Q&A with Al Jourgensen.)

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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