这支著名工业金属、电子工业乐队Ministry，译为“内阁”，乐队本身也处于工业金属的内阁地位。Ministry于1981年组建于芝加哥，是多乐器演奏家阿尔.乔根森(Al Jourgensen)表达个人音乐观点的工具，最初的成员还有鼓手斯蒂芬.乔治(Stephen Jeorge)。他们初期受“新浪漫”(the New Romantics)运动和“赶时髦”(Depeche Mode)乐队电子流行音乐的影响，1982年3月通过乔根森做合伙人的Wax Trax公司发行了首张单曲《冰冷的生活》(Cold Life)。在发行了几首受人冷落的单曲后，乐队于1983年出版了首张专辑《以同情心》(With Sympathy)。乔根森此后远离了自己的同事，在1984年与比利时重拍乐队“242号阵线”(Front 242)一同进行美国巡演时戏剧性地改变了音乐方向。在采纳了更多的工业音色后，“内阁”录制了阴暗、刺耳的专辑《抽搐》(Twitch,1985)，该专辑受益于有名望的On—U Sound公司的老板阿德里安.舍伍德(Adrian Sherwood)在制作上的帮助，是一个全新的开始。从此Ministry便成为地道的工业金属乐队，大量的工业音色、浓厚的低音鼓、烦躁的吉他riff，听起来很过瘾。乐队的经典专辑是1989年的《The mind is a terrible thing to taste》,这张专辑是这个工业先驱留给80年代的最后一击铅锤，影响深远。还有就是1991年的专辑《Psalm 69》，被称为工业金属流派划时代的一张专辑。乐队1999专辑《The Dark Side Of The Spoon》中的Bad Blood曾收录于电影Matrix(黑客帝国)原声大碟。
Until Nine Inch Nails crossed over to the mainstream, Ministry did more than any other band to popularize industrial dance music, injecting large doses of punky, over-the-top aggression and roaring heavy metal guitar riffs that helped their music find favor with metal and alternative audiences outside of industrials cult fan base. Thats not to say Ministry had a commercial or generally accessible sound: they were unremittingly intense, abrasive, pounding, and repetitive, and not always guitar-oriented (samples, synthesizers, and tape effects were a primary focus just as often as guitars and distorted vocals). However, both live and in the studio, they achieved a huge, crushing sound that put most of their contemporaries in aggressive musical genres to shame; plus, founder and frontman Al Jourgensen gave the group a greater aura of style and theater than other industrial bands, who seemed rather faceless when compared with Jourgensens leather-clad cowboy/biker look and the edgy shock tactics of such videos as N.W.O. and Just One Fix. After 1992s Psalm 69, which represented the peak of their popularity, Ministrys recorded output dwindled, partially because of myriad side projects and partially due to heroin abuse within the band, but the band continued to resurface through the rest of the decade.
Ministry was formed in 1981 by Alain Jourgensen (born October 8, 1958, Havana, Cuba); he had moved to the U.S. with his mother while very young and lived in a succession of cities, eventually working as a radio DJ and joining a new wave band called Special Affect (fronted by future My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult leader Frankie Nardiello, aka Groovie Mann). Featuring drummer Stephen George, Ministry debuted with the Wax Trax! single Cold Life, which — typical of their early output — was more in the synth pop/dance style of new wavers like the Human League or Thompson Twins. The album With Sympathy appeared on the major label Arista in 1983 and followed a similar musical direction, one that Jourgensen was dissatisfied with; he returned to Wax Trax! and recorded several singles while rethinking the bands style and forming his notorious side project the Revolting Cocks.
In 1985, with Jourgensen the only official member of Ministry, the Adrian Sherwood-produced Twitch was released by Sire Records; while not as aggressive as the groups later, more popular material, it found Jourgensen taking definite steps in that direction. Following a 1987 single with Skinny Puppys Kevin Ogilvie (aka Nivek Ogre) as PTP, Jourgensen once again revamped Ministry, with former Blackouts bassist Paul Barker officially joining the lineup to complement Jourgensens rediscovery of the guitar; fellow ex-Blackouts William Rieflin (drums) and Mike Scaccia (guitar), as well as vocalist Chris Connelly, were heavily showcased as collaborators for the first of several times on 1988s The Land of Rape and Honey. With Jourgensen and Barker credited as Hypo Luxa and Hermes Pan, respectively, this album proved to be Ministrys stylistic breakthrough, a taut, explosive fusion of heavy metal, industrial dance beats and samples, and punk aggression. 1989s The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste built on its predecessors artistic success, and In Case You Didnt Feel Like Showing Up was recorded on its supporting tour, introducing other frequent Ministry contributors like drummer Martin Atkins (later of Pigface) and guitarist William Tucker (as well as featuring a guest shot from Jello Biafra). Jourgensen next embarked on a flurry of side projects, including the aforementioned Revolting Cocks (with Barker, Barkers brother Roland, Front 242 members Luc Van Acker and Richard 23, and many more), 1000 Homo DJs (with Biafra, Rieflin, and Trent Reznor), Acid Horse, Pailhead (with Ian MacKaye), and Lard (again with Biafra, Paul Barker, Rieflin, and drummer Jeff Ward).
In late 1991, Ministry issued the single Jesus Built My Hotrod, a driving rocker featuring manic nonsense vocals by co-writer Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers; its exposure on MTV helped build anticipation for the following years full-length Psalm 69 (subtitled The Way to Succeed & the Way to Suck Eggs, although the only title that appears on the album consists of a few Greek letters and symbols). The record reached the Top 30 and went platinum, producing two further MTV hits with N.W.O. and Just One Fix, and Ministry consolidated its following with a spot on the inaugural Lollapalooza tour that summer (joined by new guitarist Louis Svitek). However, drug and legal problems sidelined the band in the wake of its newfound popularity, resulting in the clouded Filth Pig being released in 1995, too late to capitalize on their prior success. More problems with drugs and arrests followed, and Jourgensen returned to some of his side projects, recording a new album with Lard, among others. In 1999, the new single Bad Blood was featured prominently in the sci-fi special-effects blockbuster film The Matrix, setting the stage for the release of Dark Side of the Spoon (the title a reference to the bands heroin problems) later that summer. Guitarist William Tucker committed suicide in May 1999.
Ministry was nominated for a Grammy in 2000 for Bad Blood, but they lost to Black Sabbath and were dropped from Warner Bros. around the same time. They were also added to the Ozzfest tour, but they were kicked off before it even began because of a management change. To compound their sorrows, Ipecac Records announced three live albums to be released with material from the Psalm 69 tour being the main focus, but they only had a verbal agreement and when Warner Bros. caught wind of the project, they stamped it out despite already having the CDs ready for printing. In 2001, Ministry filmed a scene for Steven Spielbergs A.I. and released their contribution to the film on a greatest-hits album, appropriately titled Greatest Fits. The song received a decent amount of promotion, but the single went nowhere and the band signed to Sanctuary Records later in the year. While recording new material, they released the Sphinctour album and DVD in the spring of 2002 to satisfy rabid fans who were disappointed by the Ipecac situation. The next spring Animositisomina was released, advertised as a return to the Psalm 69 style of songwriting and featuring a cover of Magazines The Light Pours Out of Me. Houses of the Molé followed in June 2004.
In September 2005 Ministry celebrated their 25th anniversary with Rantology. Jourgensen remixed such past hits as Jesus Built My Hotrod and N.W.O. for the set; it also included live material, rarities, and the new track Great Satan. An extensive tour with Revolting Cocks in tow followed. The band then released Rio Grande Blood in May 2006, the second installment in what Jourgensen promised to be a George W. Bush-hating trilogy (which began with Houses of the Molé); the album earned Ministry another Grammy nomination (Best Metal Performance) for Lies, Lies, Lies. In 2007 the band announced they would be releasing their final album, The Last Sucker, by the end of the year.