Ministry is an American industrial metal band of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
Alain Jourgensen began Ministry in Chicago, IL, in 1981. The original line-up consisted mainly of Jourgensen (singing and playing keyboards) and Stephen George (drumming), and Ministry's original sound was essentially synth-pop that was more melodic than the music for which Jourgensen would become known. In the incarnation of Jourgensen/George, Ministry created four 12" singles on Wax Trax! Records through 1984 (anthologized on Twelve Inch Singles). Their first LP, With Sympathy, was issued on Arista Records in ( 1983), and sold slowly. The music in With Sympathy, and the various singles that Arista issued in association with it, was melodic pop, unlike anything Ministry would record afterwards. Jourgensen has always expressed disappointment with Ministry's music during those early years, reportedly referring to With Sympathy as "that abortion of an album". According to him, after signing the record contract, all artistic control of Ministry was "handed" over to other writers and producers. Some of his preferred recordings from that era were collected into the CD Early Trax ( Rykodisc Records, 2004).
By the mid-1980s, Jourgensen parted ways with George and the record-company, continuing the direction and sound of Ministry of pre-Arista period. Signing to Sire, Jourgensen performed mostly solo for Ministry's next LP, Twitch ( 1986), which didn't sell well. The music was danceable electronic music, but wasn't pop music, and the sound was harsher and more aggressive than what Ministry had recorded before. This would prove a pivotal move in the course of Ministry.
After Twitch, Jourgensen made the most pivotal change in Ministry's history when he became reenchanted with the instrument he had taken up years earlier: the electric guitar. He also brought Paul Barker back into Ministry to play electric bass in accompaniment; Barker would remain Jourgensen's bandmate through what are considered Ministry's golden years. With the addition of drummer William Rieflin, Ministry recorded The Land of Rape and Honey ( 1988). The LP was a smash success in the underground music scene and is now considered a classic and one of the most important albums in the subgenre of "industrial metal". The Land of Rape and Honey is arguably the best example of Ministry's sound, constructed of synthesizers, keyboards, tapes, jackhammering drum machines, obscure samples, dialogue excerpted from movies, unconventional electronic processing, and, occasionally, heavy distorted electric guitar and bass. The album was supported by a tour in 1988, and by the music videos for Stigmata (remix) (also issued as a single) and the title song of the album.
