From the band’s official Instagram account, Ministry has released the following statement: Done. Sayonara. Finito. However you want to say it, Ministry is coming to an end. But before bidding adieu, creator and music madman Al Jourgensen has a few final things to say about the state of the world, those in charge and how we should all collectively move forward.
He gets it all off his chest in Ministry’s final album “Hate To Go (Take Out or Delivery) coming October 30 on Cleopatra Records. Today Ministry release ta first taste of the new album with the single and video for “Burned Out,” directed by Joshua Bradford, formerly of Revolting Cocks.
When Al Jourgensen formed Ministry in Chicago in 1981, few could have predicted the impact the band would have on heavy music. What began as a synth-driven new wave project evolved into one of the most influential industrial metal bands in history, helping redefine what heavy music could sound like. Now, after 45 years, 17 studio albums, countless tours, and a career built on constant reinvention, Jourgensen says it’s finally time to call it a career.
Ministry’s final studio album, Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery), is scheduled for release on October 30 through Cleopatra Records. Alongside the announcement, Jourgensen left little room for interpretation.
«”I’m fucking done. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished… It’s been quite a ride, but I’m completely at peace with the fact that it’s done. It’s time to herd goats.”»
While longtime fans may approach the announcement with cautious optimism, Jourgensen has previously declared Ministry finished following 2007’s The Last Sucker and again after 2013’s From Beer to Eternity—this farewell feels different. Over the last several years, he has embraced every chapter of the band’s history, even revisiting the synth-pop era he once dismissed through The Squirrely Years Revisited. Bringing longtime collaborator Paul Barker back for one final studio appearance on the closing track, “We’re Still Here,” gives the project a fitting sense of closure.
The statistics behind Ministry’s legacy are staggering.
Over the course of 45 years, Ministry released 17 original studio albums, earned six Grammy nominations, toured across five continents, and built a catalog that spans industrial, metal, electronic music, punk, and experimental rock. The band’s evolution from With Sympathy to genre-defining albums like The Land of Rape and Honey, The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, and the platinum-selling Psalm 69 permanently altered the trajectory of heavy music.
Just as important as the records themselves is the influence they left behind.
Without Ministry, it’s difficult to imagine the industrial metal landscape developing as it did throughout the 1990s and beyond. Their mechanical riffs, punishing electronics, political fury, and relentless experimentation helped inspire generations of artists. Bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory, Static-X, Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, and countless others built upon foundations that Jourgensen helped establish, while Ministry proved that electronic music and crushing guitars could coexist without compromise.
Few artists have remained as uncompromising as Jourgensen. Throughout changing musical trends, shifting record labels, lineup changes, and the evolving music industry, Ministry consistently challenged listeners rather than chasing commercial success. Political commentary became a defining characteristic of the band’s later work, with albums tackling war, corruption, disinformation, and social unrest long before many of those conversations became commonplace in heavy music.
It is perhaps fitting that Ministry’s final album arrives with a title as unapologetically irreverent as Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery). If the first single, “Burned Out,” is any indication, Jourgensen isn’t interested in softening his message for a farewell. Instead, he’s delivering one last blast of the anger, sarcasm, and confrontation that have defined Ministry for decades.
Whether this truly marks the end only time will tell. Ministry has walked away before, only to return with renewed purpose. But if this farewell proves permanent, Al Jourgensen leaves behind one of heavy music’s most important legacies.
Forty-five years after first stepping into Chicago’s underground music scene, Ministry isn’t simply ending a band. It is closing the book on one of industrial music’s greatest innovators, a career that challenged convention, inspired generations of musicians, and forever changed the sound of heavy music.
Words and photos by Adam Tibbott
