It was only last year that Ministry released Relapse, but their 13th album, From Beer to Eternity, will be coming out in September on their own 13th Planet Records. “But wait,” you might be thinking, “wasn’t Relapse supposed to be their last?” Well yeah, but Al Jourgensen zigs where others zag, and in his words, “I had no choice.” Sessions began for the album last December, with Al, guitarists Mike Scaccia and Sin Quirin, drummer Aaron Rossi, and former Static-X bassist Tony Campos. The band laid down 18 rough tracks, and just three days later they finished, Scaccia died from a heart attack while onstage with Rigor Mortis, his old band.
We have never, in the history of Ministry, ever had a tracking session like that before,” states Jourgensen, “everything went so smoothly, it was surreal. And Mikey was so on fire and inspired, and really a driving force for this record.” After returning from Scaccia’s funeral in Dallas, and shouldering the weight of grief as well as the desire to honor his fallen comrade, Jourgensen locked himself in his studio with his engineer and co-producer Sammy D’Ambruoso for three excruciating months. “There was no choice,” Jourgensen says of the bittersweet production process. “During the tracking sessions, Mikey was smiling and going, ‘You know what, Al? This is by far and away the best Ministry album we’ve ever done together. This is awesome.’ I’m super proud of From Beer to Eternity because it’s my tribute to Mikey’s incredible talent, and I feel it honors him and all of the years we spent together making music.
Wondering where the headline comes from? Well, the way you’ll be able to keep track of whats going on with the album is by following a Facebook page belonging to Al Jourgensen’s two Labradors, Ozzy and Lemmy Jourgensen. So far, they’ve had some cutting-edge commentary, like “OUR POPS IS SO BADASS!!!” with a picture of Al. Maybe it’ll get better. At any rate, “PermaWar,” the album’s first single, will be released on iTunes in late July, and the album will be out on September 6. In addition, Jourgensen’s authorized biography, Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen, will be released on July 9th. It will probably be a fascinating and revealing read – especially to Al.
