Knockout Pill Industrial Rockers Ministry Resurface With Dark, New Worldview And The Same In-Your-Face Attitude

It would seem, from just one listen to Ministry’s new album, “Filth Pig” (Warner Bros.), released Tuesday, that once again the Prozac has failed to kick in.

“That’s right, the Prozac is not working,” says Ministry’s Paul Barker, on the phone from his Austin, Texas, home. “There are much more powerful sedatives out there.”

Sonically speaking, Ministry is one of those sedatives, a knockout pill, really. It’s also a stimulant: an aggressive, heavy, gnashing, pioneering “industrial” rock band co-fronted by singer/multi-instrumentalist Al Jourgensen and bassist/singer/programmer Barker.

Ministry, which first took shape during the early ‘80s, resurfaces after nearly four years on the sidelines. It’s a period in which we’ve seen the phenomenal rise of Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails, an industrial rock band that followed many aspects of the Ministry blueprint. This is the new world order that the reconstituted Ministry re-enters. Are there, thus, expectations of success on a grand scale?

“I don’t know,” says Barker, dismissing any notion of sour grapes. “Obviously, we’re not concerned with this thing called industrial music and trying to extrapolate on the medium or genre. We’re just tired of that. We don’t listen to that kind of music at home.”

Beg to differ, but Ministry still has deep links to the rigid, piston-pounding sound of industrial music. Also, in its thick slabs of roiling, metallic riffs, Ministry makes a further connection to another seminal influence, early Black Sabbath. There’s a nasty blues undertone. Primary emotion: Rage. Number of lighter moments: 0.

“It’s us flippin’ people off,” says Barker of an album they recorded both in Austin and Chicago. “We’re concerned with not giving people what they want; we don’t want to spoonfeed people. I never thought this was a harder album, but it’s certainly slower, more introspective and darker. Since we’ve been doing press, a lot of people are saying this is a harder record - that’s what we strive for…. On the surface, it’s much less sample-laden, much cleaner in that sense, stripped down - there aren’t as many layers to dig through. I think musically it’s more interesting, maybe not sonically on first listen, but it’s pithier. There’s more you can sink your teeth into.

“I’m 37, Al’s 37. I think what’s happened is we’ve decided we’re not creatively dried up yet. Regardless of how the industry works, we’ve tried to do things with a five-year plan. We’re thinking about the creative long haul. … I’m thrilled and flattered the band is as popular as it is and they give a hoot.”

Here, Barker wants to apologize for Ministry’s dearth of material. The band that, believe it or not, began life as a frothy synth-pop outfit in the early 1980s has been primarily based in Chicago for more than a decade. They are notoriously slow workers. Their last album, “Psalm 69,” came out in 1992. Jourgensen and Barker have, however, recorded under monikers (such as Lard) with other pioneers from the heavy-rock underground.

Nevertheless, says Barker of a world without Ministry, “it’s really pitiful and I apologize. It’s really lame. I think the band ought to put out a record once a year. All I can say is we have a record done, it’s an honest record.”

You can get a fairly good idea of where Ministry’s coming from via the song titles: “Filth Pig,” “Useless,” “Dead Guy” “The Fall.” A fairly dark world view. “I suppose when you dig into somebody’s mind,” Barker says, “you don’t know what you’re going to uncover. We’re not really concerned with how people perceive our message as much as we are being creatively honest and fulfilled in that sense. If we’re not true to ourselves, we think you can hear that in the music… . If we were just trying to placate people, it would seem saccharine or insincere.”

As Details’ Rob Sheffield wrote in a recent rave review, it is Jourgenson’s “most repulsive record ever.” We’d say, sure.

As evidenced by the 1991 single “Jesus Built My Hot-Rod,” Ministry does have a jittery pop sensibility, however warped it might be. But that sensibility is, as Barker admits, pretty much abandoned on “Filth Pig.”

Ministry begins a two-month American tour March 15 in the Midwest.