Moral Hygiene

After enduring a year like 2020, no one could have possibly expected Al Jourgensen to stay silent on the maelstrom of the past 12 months. As the mastermind behind pioneering industrial outfit Ministry, Jourgensen has spent the last four decades using music as a megaphone to rally listeners to the fight for equal rights, restoring American liberties, exposing exploitation and putting crooked politicians in their rightful place-set to a background of aggressive riffs, searing vocals and manipulated sounds to drive it home.

Moral Hygiene comes on the heels of Ministry's ac­claimed 2018 album AmeriKKKant (hailed by Loudwire as Jourgensen's own "state of the union" address) that was written as a reaction to Donald J. Trump being elected president-though Jourgensen says this new album is more informational and reflective in tone. "With AmeriKKKant I was in shock that Trump won. I didn't know what to do, but I knew I had to do something. Because I believe if you are a musician or an artist you should be expressing what's going on around you through your art. It's going to happen whether you do it consciously or unconsciously". Moral Hygiene however has progressed even further into a cautionary tale of what will happen if we don't act. There's less rage, but there's more reflection and I bring in some guests to help cement that narrative.

With the release of Moral Hygiene, Jourgensen is more positive than before. "This may sound crazy but I'm more hopeful about 2021 than I have been in two decades at least," he says. "Because I do see things changing; people are starting to see through all the bullshit and want to get back to actual decorum in society. We could just treat each other nicely and be treated nicely in return. I never thought Ministry would be in the position of preaching traditional values, but this is the rebellion now."