History Music / Ministry

After ''Psalm 69'', the band almost got derailed by the members' severe drug addictions, culminating in a 1995 raid of their Texas headquarters and Jourgensen's arrest for possession. He received a five-year probation sentence and subsequently struggled to overcome his addiction. Around the same time, Rieflin and Scaccia left the band. Their next two albums, ''Filth Pig'' and ''Dark Side of the Spoon'', stripped away the industrial elements from their sound (synthesizers, samplers, electronics) in favour of straightforward guitar-bass-drums noise. The reception from both fans and critics was poor (although both albums have since gained supporters), and the band's lineup continued to be unstable. A guitarist from this era, Zlatko Hukic, had a solo career as a RapMetal artist and a stint in the group Music/DarkLotus, under the name Marz.

In 2024, Jourgensen announced that he would be retiring Ministry again with one more album after ''HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES'', and that he would be reuniting with Barker for the planned final album.

** Tours (for both Ministry and Revolting Cocks) since 1996: [=SphincTour, CliTour [[note]]which, once it hit the United States, became the even more blatant "[=CliTour=] '''US'''"[[/note]], FornicaTour MasterBaTour, C-U-LaTour (Ministry's last tour before their 2008 retirement), LubricaTour=] (the follow-up Revolting Cocks tour).

** Tours (for both Ministry and Revolting Cocks) since 1996: [=SphincTour, CliTour, FornicaTour MasterBaTour, C-U-LaTour (Ministry's last tour before their 2008 retirement), LubricaTour=] (the follow-up Revolting Cocks tour).

* AmbiguouslyBi: Al himself is probably at least somewhat bisexual, if he’s not engaging in outright UnreliableNarrator shenanigans; see HoYay on the YMMV page.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Al's not exactly on the best of terms right now with the other members of the classic lineup, bar Mike Scaccia. It has gotten to the point where he is now denying that they ever were friends despite a ''lot'' of evidence to the contrary.

* CarSong: "Jesus Built My Hotrod." The actual lyrics are scatted nonsense, but the spoken intro and SpokenWordInMusic samples are themed around fast cars and drag racing, and the music video and single artwork also run with the concept.

* ObsessionSong: "WKYJ"

* SequelSong: "TV Song", a BSide to "Jesus Built My Hotrod," was soon followed by "TV II" on ''Psalm 69'' - while "TV II" was just a re-recording of "TV Song", they did later turn it into more of a ThematicSeries starting with the ''Filth Pig'' era BSide "TV III" - Any song with the word "TV" in it tends to include SpokenWordInMusic samples from television, fast tempos, StopAndGo, and usually also lyrics about television spreading paranoia and/or consumerism delivered at {{Motormouth}} speed.

* SequelSong: "TV Song", a BSide to "Jesus Built My Hotrod," was followed by "TV II," "TV III," "WTV," and "Side [=Fx=] Include Mikey's Middle Finger (TV 4)" [[note]]That last one apparently renders one of the other "TV" songs non-canon - probably they're counting "TV Song" and "TV II" as the same thing, as one is just a re-recording of the other[[/note]]. It's something of a ThematicSeries - The songs all include SpokenWordInMusic samples from television, a lot of StopAndGo, and usually also lyrics about television spreading paranoia and consumerism delivered at {{Motormouth}} speed.

** ''Hopiumforthemasses'' closes with a surprisingly faithful cover of "Ricky's Hand" by industrial / SynthPop artist Fad Gadget.

** ''Hopiumforthemasses'' closes with "Ricky's Hand", a synthesizer-based industrial dance song that could almost fit in on ''Twitch''.

* LeadBassist: Paul Barker, from 1987 to 2003, was Ministry's co-producer and second core member alongside Al. Many Barker-era songs tended to be bass-driven as well.

* LeadBassist: Paul Barker, from 1987 to 2003, was Ministry's co-producer and second core member alongside Al.

** ''Dark Side of the Spoon'' has a strange piece of seemingly found audio (variously called "Everybody", "Summertime", or "Dialogue") as track 68 - it's an unknown woman (introduced as Linda) singing a rambling acappella song about the summertime.

** ''Houses of the Mol&eacute'' introduced the ThrashMetal sound that has defined the band since.

* SurprisinglyGentleSong: Asked to play an afternoon set for Music/NeilYoung's Bridge School Benefit charity concerts, the band opted for a set that was primarily acoustic {{Cover Version}}s - a surprisingly faithful version of Music/TheGratefulDead's "Friend Of The Devil" was included on one of the accompanying ''Bridge School'' albums, marking one of the few times Al could be heard singing softly and melodically on an officially released Ministry song since the 80's.

* ''Hopiumforthemasses'' (2024)

* ''Hopium for the Masses'' (2023)

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''With Sympathy'', as previously stated, sounds very little like the rest of the catolouge, while ''Twitch'' is arguably heavier than what comes after it. See GenreShift below.

** Ministry has continued after the departure of Paul Barker, the band's second core member, in 2003.

* TheBandMinusTheFace: In the 2010s, either Revolting Cock's touring without Al, or Ministry touring without Paul Barker, Chris Connelly, etc., YMMV, see BrokenBase.