After incubating for the larger part of 2020 – at time when creative mastermind Al Jourgensen was able to ruminate on the New World we as a society have found ourselves in – the time has finally come for MINISTRY to unleash their much-anticipated 15th studio album.
Aptly titled Moral Hygiene, the album will be released 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 AmeriKKKantand 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.
“The good thing about literally taking a year off from any social activity or touring is that you really get to sit back and get an overview of things as they are happening, as opposed to being caught up in the moment. And what I saw with how we handled several public crises – from the pandemic to racial injustice to who we vote in to lead our country – is that times are changing, and society needed to change to get away from the idea that has permeated us of take care of yourself, fuck everything else. Now more than ever we need moral hygiene,” says Jourgensen of the new album. “It consumed me as I wrote this album. It’s not some pious term. It’s what we have to return to in order to function as the human species on this planet. And I’m proud to have had such great guests on this album to help cement that message like Billy Morrison, Jello Biafra and Arabian Prince.”
In conjunction with today’s album announcement, the latest track ‘Good Trouble’ is also released. The song, inspired by the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and the activist work of the late Congressman John Lewis, is accompanied by a new video that includes sampling from last year’s demonstrations in Los Angeles as captured by Jourgensen and his partner Liz Walton.