If you picked a copy of the latest Current, you’ll see that we threw Ministry’s ferocious frontman Al Jourgensen on the cover. Why, you ask? For over three decades, San Antonians have championed all things industrial and metal, and with Ministry’s amalgamation of both genres, we ate that shit up back in the '80s. Even as we approach 2019, the Alamo City craves their sonic assault. Duh.
Opening the night was Alien Weaponry a thrash metal band with nu-metal groove tendencies, or a nu-metal band with thrash tendencies. Take your pick. The New Zealanders played groove-heavy riffs over big open beats in the vein of early Sepultura.
Actually, with the inclusion of some parts of the Haka, a Maori war dance in their music (the three members are of Maori descent), there was this tribal element infused with metal that really gave a nod to the Brazilian band.
Up next was Carpenter Brut, a French electro band that needs to play San Antonio again soon or I’m going to be upset. The trio tap into elements of post punk, electro and '80s synth for a mix that’s as nostalgic as the B movie slasher films they were playing behind them on a gigantic screen.
The crowd danced as the projector showed topless cheerleaders getting stabbed and blinding strobe lights pulsed in unison with arpeggiating synth distortion spiraling through the Aztec. If you ever wanted to feel a part of a weird '80s movie or binge movies like The Lost Boys and Heathers, Carpenter Brut pulled us in so deep you almost forgot that Ministry was going to headline this show (not a jab at Ministry obviously – just want to articulate how amazing this band was).
Cheering as the French trio ended their set, the crowd began to thicken, with lots of dudes in black Ministry t-shirts, hoodies and black leather jackets filling out the theatre.
With an old school TV showing static projected on the screen, Al Jourgensen and friends launched into “Twilight Zone,” followed by “Victims of a Clown” off this year’s AmeriKKKant.
Cups of beer began to fly through the audience and mosh pits swelled as Ministry tore into the thrash-as-fuck “We’re Tired of It,” another track off the new record.
The band filled the first half of its set with a bunch of new tracks from the record, including “Wargasm,” “Antifa” and “Game Over,” before switching gears into the good ol’ jams.
The crowd lost its collective mind as Ministry rocketed into “The Land of Rape and Honey,” the title track from the now 30-year-old album, which helped solidify Al Jourgensen and family as leaders of industrial metal.
From “The Missing,” to “Deity,” and then “Stigmata,” Jourgensen performed like a pied piper of industrial, leading the band – and in turn the crowd – through a mini journey through The Land of Rape and Honey before blasting into “Just One Fix,” from 1992’s Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs.
Before the band closed the evening, Jourgensen took us all the way back to 1989, finishing the show with the industrial classics “Thieves” and “So What,” as machine noises and distorted guitars echoed off the walls like a choir of industrial angels inviting our inevitable apocalypse.
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