Ministry formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1981, by singer, producer and multi- instrumentalist, Al Jourgensen. releasing their debut ‘With Sympathy’ in 1983. By the end of the 1980s Ministry had morphed from their original synth-pop sound to become pioneers of industrial metal. Four classic albums from Ministry’s time at Sanctuary imprint Mayan – for fans of Nine Inch Nails and White Zombie. 2002’s ‘Sphinctour’ captured their live sound across a series of dates on their 1996 tour to support the ‘Filth Pig’ album; recorded straight to DAT tape from the mixing desk, without any further mixing or studio trickery. Al Jourgensen was joined on this tour by long-time Ministry collaborator Paul Barker on bass, Reynolds Washam on drums, Duane Buford on keyboards, Zlatko Hukic on guitar and Louis Svitek on guitar. The 11-track live album includes ‘Psalm 69’ from the Elysée Montmartre in Paris, ‘Just One Fix’ taken from the famed Aragon Ballroom in their hometown of Chicago and ‘NWO’ at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Animositisomina from 2003 was their eighth studio record, and first studio set for Sanctuary/Mayan, and features nine original tracks, plus a cover of Magazine’s ‘The Light Pours Out of Me’, and was the last album to feature Paul Barker. Their ninth album, Houses Of The Molé saw the band move away from a purely industrial sound to a more thrash metal style. Anti-George Bush in theme, Ministry mainstay Al Jourgensen saw it “as something of a rebirth”, being the first for some years to not feature Paul Barker. The band’s final release for the label was 2005’s remix compilation, Rantology, which included one new track, ‘The Great Satan’, which is joined by unique updated mixes of Ministry classics ‘NOW’, ‘Stigmata’ and ‘Jesus Built My Hotrod’, featuring the Butthole Surfer’s Gibby Haynes.