Industrial Rock Pioneers MINISTRY Signs To Sanctuary Records; Live DVD/VHS SPHINCTOUR Slated For April 9th, 2002 Release

Debut Live CD To Be Released On March 19th

7-Mar-02

At a time when trends are becoming skewed and hybrid artists are becoming the norm, Chicago's MINISTRY still stands tall as a true innovator. Initially experimenting with a fusion of menacing guitar riffery with electro-industrial samples & loops, the band essentially created the crossover genre of Industrial Hard Rock, serving as an influence to a wellspring of budding artists, from Nine Inch Nails and White Zombie to Fear Factory and Orgy. The band more recently achieved notable success with tracks on the extremely popular Matrix soundtrack and in the Steven Spielberg film, A.I. Now, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, MINISTRY has signed with Sanctuary Records, the home of other such genre definers as Megadeth, Biohazard and Rob Halford, as well as industrial-driven artists Gravity Kills and Pitchshifter.Possessing a flair for the enigmatic, the band spearheaded an unlikely marriage between harsh melancholy and black humor. Thus, the band's March 19th debut release for Sanctuary is a special live album entitled SPHINCTOUR.Recorded at various shows around the globe, the disc (and subsequent April 9th DVD/VHS) captures MINISTRY in top form, mixing cold, calculated precision with raucous chaos in a circus of mayhem; the very crux of a MINISTRY performance. The result is a more powerful and intense live release than even their previously released,classic 1990 live EP IN CASE YOU DIDN'T FEEL LIKE SHOWING UP (which was recorded prior to, and therefore does not include tracks from band's breakthrough, platinum-selling album PSALM 69). Vocalist Al Jourgenson reminisces the energy transfer of a MINISTRY show: ""We just hammered out one song after another, and I'd see all of these young headbangers and kids with shark-fin Mohawks getting winded. By the time we'd play 'Thieves,' they had to play Tag Team Moshpit with their friends, because they couldn't keep up with us cranky f**kers.""The DVD/VHS was filmed throughout the band's 1996 SPHINCTOUR tour in support of the FILTH PIG album. From recording to touring to interviewing, Ministry has never done anything conventionally. So don't expect a typical pay-per-view sterile crane-mounted, multi-camera live experience. Filming all sixty shows with just one hi-8 camera, by filmmakers Jeffrey Kinart and Doug Freel, SPHINCTOUR is a composite of hundreds of edits mirroring both the band's murderous sonic fury and the debilitating mental health that one can only experience being on the road.Co-conspirator Paul Barker explains: ""Some nights we were playing crazy shows in small places, and sometimes we were playing festivals in front of 40,000 people. The music has to stay constant, so how do you truly document the tour? The visuals are allowed to go out of sync. Most of the rock concert videos we've seen only show one thing; how bad-assed the band is. We didn't want to glamorize the band too much on SPHINCTOUR. Sometimes you are pissed-off, sad or hung over just before you go onstage. This is what it felt like on the entire course of that tour, and what you had to do to make it through one night.""In addition to the intense visuals, the SPHINCTOUR DVD/VHS will include 2 bonus tracks not available on its CD counterpart (""So What"" & ""Stigmata""). With production by the AIX Media Group, the DVD is being offered in Dolby Digital Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.Production credits include:Directors: Jeffrey Kinart and Doug FreelProduced by Jeffrey KinartEditors: Doug Freel and Jeffrey KinartAssistant Editors: Todd TuntlandPost Production at: On-Time Off-LinePost Production Supervisor: Todd DarlingMINISTRY plans to promote the signing and new releases with a major headline touring occurring this summer or fall, and is currently in the studio recording their debut studio album for Sanctuary. ""It's going to be called ANIMOSITISOMINA,"" beams Jourgenson. ""It's the word 'animosity' spelled forwards and backwards, minus the 'y.' It's double the hatred and double the time on my hands...""

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