In a move once thought impossible, industrial metal icons Ministry will once again be taking to the stage in celebration of their early synth pop years. Band founder Al Jourgensen has had a complicated history with those initial entries in the band’s catalog, at one point stating “With Sympathy” traumatized him for years due to the label’s heavy hand in it, however, as last year proved, time has certainly softened his stance.
The spring of 2024 saw Jourgensen and co. hit the stage for to perform updated versions of those early tracks at the annual ‘Cruel World‘ festival in Pasadena, CA. Now comes word that newly reworked and re-recorded versions of those songs will be made available on March 28th as part of “The Squirrely Years Revisited“. That set will be arriving through Cleopatra Records.
Jourgensen said of this latest move, “Since I hated my early stuff for decades, I decided to take ownership of it and do it right.” This new outing featured updated versions of the following tracks, complete with a series of music videos also being amassed for future release:
01 – “Work For Love”
02 – “Here We Go”
03 – “All Day”
04 – “Everyday Is Halloween”
05 – “Revenge”
06 – “I’m Not An Effigy”
07 – “I’m Falling”
08 – “Same Old Madness”
09 – “I’ll Do Anything For You”
10 – “Just Like You” (CD only bonus track)
11 – “We Believe” (CD only bonus track)
12 – “Over The Shoulder” (CD only bonus track)
Pre-orders can be obtained via cleorecs.com. As mentioned above, live celebrations of that material are also planned, with ‘The Squirrely Years Tour‘ set to launch towards the end of April. Joining Jourgensen on that band will be:
John Bechdel (keyboards)
Monte Pittman (guitars)
Cesar Soto (guitars)
Paul D’Amour (bass)
Pepe Clarke Magañ (drums)
Tickets for that run, which will find Nitzer Ebb and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult splitting direct support duties on separate legs, and Die Krupps opening throughout, will be on sale this Friday, February 14th at 10:00am local time. A final studio album from Ministry, which reunites Jourgensen with Paul Barker, is expected to arrive in 2026.
With Nitzer Ebb & Die Krupps:
04/29 Phoenix, AZ – Van Buren
04/30 Albuquerque, NM – Revel
05/02 Austin, TX – Emo’s
05/03 Houston, TX – House of Blues
05/04 Dallas, TX – Factory
05/06 Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
05/08 Columbus, OH – Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival (no Die Krupps)
05/09 Chicago, IL – Riviera
05/10 Detroit, MI – Masonic Cathedral
05/12 Baltimore, MD – Soundstage
With My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult & Die Krupps:
05/13 Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall
05/14 Boston, MA – Roadrunner
05/16 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
05/17 Montreal, QC – MTelus
05/18 Toronto, ON – History
05/20 Minneapolis, MN – Palace
05/21 Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
05/23 Edmonton, AB – Midway Music Hall
05/24 Calgary, AB – Palace Theatre
05/26 Vancouver, BC – Commodore
05/28 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
05/29 Spokane, WA – Spokane Live Casino
05/31 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
06/01 Salt Lake City, UT – Union
06/03 San Francisco, CA – Warfield
06/04 Los Angeles, CA – Palladium
06/05 Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
