In addition to four decades of incredible original material that spawned a whole new genre of music, industrial mainstays Ministry and creator/frontman Al Jourgensen are also well known for a series of memorable cover songs from Black Sabbath’s ‘Supernaut‘ to Bob Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay‘. The newest tribute is a take on The Stooges‘ ‘Search And Destroy’ offering a uniquely slowed down tempo and Jourgensen’s guttural howl that amplifies the song’s wartime critique. The video was directed by the iconic Dean Karr (Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Dr. Dre, Velvet Revolver, Rob Zombie).

See the video for ‘Search And Destroy’ here: https://youtu.be/psHDeiXRVwQ

Featured on the song is Billy Morrison (Billy Idol, Royal Machines) who worked closely with Jourgensen to hone Ministry’s version, an idea they came up with after teaming up on the track in a moment of accidental kismet at the Above Ground benefit concert in Los Angeles in 2019.

Recalls Jourgensen: “We rehearsed it and the song was perfect but the show was running late and by the time we got on stage, I was in half time and singing the lyrics twice as slow. Fortunately Billy and Dave Navarro are professionals and they realised what was going on and sort of covered for me but I felt horrible. Billy thought it actually sounded really good in half-time so he came to me with the idea of going into the studio and recording it that way. And I figured I owed him one.”

For the music video, filmed in a desert wasteland in a remote part of Los Angeles where airplanes are retired, Jourgensen learned how to operate an antiquated war weapon and wore an arsenal of heavy artillery to get into character. He says, “It was the smoothest shoot I’ve ever done and one of the memories I’ll take to my grave.”

‘Search And Destroy’ will appear on Ministry’s upcoming 15th studio album Moral Hygiene, which will be released via Nuclear Blast Records on October 1st. With some of Ministry’s strongest and most inspired material to date, the 10 tracks are a follow-up to 2018’s lauded AmeriKKKant and put forth Jourgensen’s societal manifesto and plea for civilization to get back to a set of standards that lives up to and embraces our humanity.

Moral Hygiene also includes the previously released ‘Good Trouble’ (a tribute to late Congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis) as well as ‘Alert Level’ that sounded the alarms about our collective dissonance towards the pandemic, climate change and the man formerly in the White House, bolstered by the song’s overarching question posed to listeners: “How concerned are you?”

Moral Hygiene was recorded with engineer Michael Rozon (also behind the boards on AmeriKKKant) at Scheisse Dog Studio, Jourgensen’s self-built home studio and creative lab. As with all Ministry albums, all songs are written and performed by Al Jourgensen. Additional contributions come from Billy Morrison (Billy Idol, Royal Machines), Cesar Soto (Man The Mute), John Bechdel (Killing Joke, Fear Factory), Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour, Soulfly, Nausea), Paul D’Amour (Tool, Feersum Ennjin), Arabian Prince (N.W.A.), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) and sitar player Flash.

Moral Hygiene will be available in CD, vinyl and digital download formats. Pre-orders are available at: www.nuclearblast.com/ministry-moralhygiene

Moral Hygiene track listing:

  1. Alert Level
  2. Good Trouble
  3. Sabotage Is Sex
  4. Disinformation
  5. Search and Destroy
  6. Believe Me
  7. Broken System
  8. We Shall Resist
  9. Death Toll
  10. TV Song #6 (Right Around The Corner Mix)