Mike Scaccia, the guitarist for Ministry and Rigor Mortis, died on Saturday night at the age of 47. Scaccia was performing onstage at the Rail Club in Fort Worth, Texas, as part of a 50th birthday celebration for Rigor Mortis singer Bruce Corbitt, when he collapsed. Shortly afterwards, he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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Scaccia was born in Babylon, New York, on July 14th, 1965, and formed thrash metallists Rigor Mortis in 1983. Six years later, the guitarist was invited by Al Jourgensen to join Ministry. The first full-length Ministry studio recording to feature Scaccia was the group's most commercially successful release, 1992's Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs, which spawned such industrial metal classics as "N.W.O." and "Jesus Built My Hotrod," and was supported by an appearance on Lollapalooza that same year.

Additionally, Scaccia appeared on recordings by a host of Ministry offshoot bands, including the Revolting Cocks, Lard, and Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters. The most recent Ministry album that Scaccia appeared on was this year's Relapse. [Rolling Stone]

Guitarist Mike Scaccia of Ministry, Rigor Mortis, and other bands passed away on Saturday (12/22) while performing on stage with Rigor Mortis. He reportedly asked the club to turn the strobe lights off before collapsing from a seizure.

Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen wrote on the band's facebook:

I just lost my lil' brother and my best friend - the 13th Planet compound is devastated, completely in shock and shattered," the note reads, in part. "Mikey was not only the best guitar player in the history of music, but he was a close, close, close part of our family - and I just lost a huge chunk of my heart today. Our lives are forever changed. Life without Mikey is like orange juice without pulp - kind of bland. I have no words to express what this guy meant to me, my family, my career. . . . Everything!

Rest in peace, Mike. You'll be missed. Some videos below...

Continue reading "Mike Scaccia (Ministry, Rigor Mortis), RIP"

Ministry at Best Buy in June 2012 (more by Greg Cristman)

Ministry's Al Jourgensen wasn't doing so well at the band's Paris show, and spent some time in the hospital because of it:

July 27, 2012 PARIS 9:05 pm Ministry Front man Al Jourgensen collapsed on-stage during the live Ministry performance and was rushed to hospital via ambulance where he was examined by numerous physicians and diagnosed to have had a full-system collapse due to extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion intensified by the lack of ventilation on stage at the venue. Doctors confirm via blood tests conducted that Jourgensen's alcohol blood levels were well below normal and no narcotics were found in his system. As a result, Ministry has cancelled today's appearance at the L'Etaples France Rock en Stock Festival in order to allow Mr. Jourgensen a few days rest to recuperate and receive additional medical attention in Switzerland. Jourgensen fully intends to complete the remaining shows on the Ministry DeFiBriLlaTouR European leg.

Jourgensen extends his most sincere apologies to his devoted Parisian fans who displayed so much love, respect and concern for him before and after the Ministry show. Says Jourgensen: "I will make it up to you, somehow. I love Paris, I love the Parisian people. I'm so sorry ...but, shit happens and the shit hit the fan for me last night."

That's quite bold to keep on pushing on; his next show is Tuesday, July 31 in Switzerland. Take care of yourself, dude. All remaining tour dates and video from the Paris show is below.

Continue reading "Ministry's Al Jourgenson collapses on stage, cancels dates but forges on"

photos by Greg Cristman

Chicago industrial-metal favorites Ministry are on tour and played Best Buy Theater in NYC on Saturday (6/23), with support from the awesomely dressed Blackburner and Iraqi metal band Acrassicauda. The shows are part of the band's (read: Al Jourgenson's) anti-retirement dates which conclude in the US with a pair of shows in their native Chicago later this week (Jun 28th and 29th at Vic Theater). The band will then play lots of dates in Europe over the rest of the summer.

Here are some pictures from the NYC show. More of them and the setlist, and all those dates too, below...

Continue reading "Ministry played Best Buy Theater in NYC (pics & setlist)"

Ministry Live

As discussed, Ministry is back in business and now OFFICIALLY back on the road with the Relapse 2012 tour. Spanning four cities in middle-to-late June of 2012, Chicago gets two dates, LA one, Denver one, and NYC gets one: the lone East Coast date at Best Buy Theater on 6/23/12. Tickets for that, and all other dates go on sale on 9/16 at 10AM.

All tour dates and some video is below.

Continue reading "Ministry tour dates announced"

Well that didn't last long....

Metal Hammer: So how did the resurrection of Ministry come about?

Al Jourgensen: While I was working on [the Buck Satan record], me and Mike Scaccia from Rigor Mortis fucked around to pass the time and we had like, 5,6,7 songs and I didn't really want to do anything with them but Mikey was like, "dude these songs are awesome." They weren't country, they were more like Ministry. So he's coming by in September and Tommy Victor's coming by in October with Tony Campos and we're gona finish up and put out another Ministry album by Christmas called 'Relapse.'"

Interesting title for a record...

"Well, I'm clean living but it's like I'm relapsing back into the world of Ministry."

So what are your immediate plans for touring?

"The doctors told me to keep it light so we're doing four shows in the States next June. The Nokia theatre in LA, the Vic theatre in Chicago - we'll add second shows if those sell out - Denver at the Ogden Theatre, and one night at the Nokia theatre in New York and that's our whole American tour. That's it. And then we go to Europe and I'm gonna do a couple of festivals and club shows. We're gona do a limited tour, it'll be like 5/6 weeks. Maybe 20, 21 shows and just see how it works."

And who's in the lineup?

"It's the usual suspects, I got Mike Scaccia and Tommy Victor on guitar, I got Tony Campos on bass, and Arron Rossi who plays with Prong on drums and John Bechdel from Killing Joke."

We'll let you know when those dates materialize.

Twin Sister @ MHOW in June (more by Jessica Amaya)

today in NYC
* Elliott Sharp @ The Stone
* JACK Quartet @ The Stone
* Tyshawn Sorey @ Roulette
* Vanilla Ice @ the Studio
* Cro-Mags @ Rocks Off Cruise
* Alien Whale, Dick Heaven @ Zebulon
* Gov't Mule @ Central Park Summerstage
* Doug E. Fresh & DJ Dee Wiz @ Jackie Robinson Park
* Balun, Murder Mystery, Antimagic, Balene @ Glasslands
* Total Slacker (SummerScreen: Point Break) @ McCarren Park
* Little Gold, Fergus & Geronimo, Radical Dads @ Cake Shop
* Mutant Supremacy, Boneblack, Syphilitic Lust @ The Acheron
* Funkmaster Flex B-Day: Camron, Ja Rule & Shaggy @ BB King's
* Wild Beasts, Lone Wolf, The Kissaway Trail @ Highline Ballroom
* Data Dog, Family Lumber, El Jezel, Pet Ghost Project @ Bruar Falls
* Memoryhouse, Twin Sister, Oberhofer, Beauty Feast @ Mercury Lounge
* Eli Paperboy Reed, April Smith & The Great Picture Show, Sarah Renfro @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Tandem Psych, American Folklore, Sally Burtnick, Human Host, Haunted Houses @ Death By Audio
* Baba Ola Jagun and Ancestral Rhythms with special guest Kevin Mambo, The Band Droidz, Fred Thomas (from James Brown's band), The Ex Caminos @ Knitting Factory

"FIX: The Ministry Movie" has a trailer (two actually). Watch it (them) below...

Memoryhouse covered "When You Sleep" by My Bloody Valentine at Great Scott (at the first night of their tour with Twin Sister that hits Mercury Lounge tonight). Video below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: Trap Them - They Followed the Scent of Jihad All The Way to Thieves Paradise from "Sleepwell Deconstructor" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Earth - Omens And Portents I: The Driver from "The Bees Made Honey In The Lions Skull" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Nasum - Doombringer from "Helvete" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Behemoth - Prometherion from "The Apostasy" (MP3)

The Hidden Hand, Place Of Skulls, The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, and the aforementioned Shrinebuilder all have had one thing in common, the stamp of quality by doom legend Scott "Wino" Weinrich. Now Southern Lord brings word of "Punctuated Equilibrium", aka the "Wino" solo record! Backed by skinsman extraordinaire Jean-Paul Gaster (Clutch) and Jon Blank (Rez n) on bass, the new record will be tracked by producer (and legend in his own right) J Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, etc).

Fresh off of the right & left hook known as "Sleepwell Deconstructor" and "Seance Prime", hardcore punkers Trap Them will be bobbin' & weavin' through Europe and the east & west coasts through the end of April, including a date at the Charleston on March 12th and another at The Knit on June 16th. Look for them to support the massive multi-instrument collective The Ocean and grind pioneers Extreme Noise Terror in Europe. Sprechen about Germany's The Ocean, check out their guest blog over at Headbanger's Blog and if you play cello and/or viola and feel like touring Europe & the US, email em!

D-Beat kings Tragedy (ex-His Hero Is Gone) have added a May 2nd show at the Knitting Factory with Japanese hardcore band Systematic Death & Disnihil. Tickets are on sale. Definitely highly reccommended.....

Torche posted a new track from their upcoming Kurt Ballou-produced LP "Meanderthal". The track "Piranha" is now streaming at their myspace, and the "Meanderthal" track listing and updated tour dates (including a date with Municipal Waste & Iron Lung) is below......along with a whole lot of other stuff....

Continue reading "This Week In METAL (2/13/08)"

The "C U LaTouR" touring line-up features Ministry's founder Al Jourgensen joined onstage by guitarists Tommy Victor (Prong) and Sin Quirin (Revolting Cocks), keyboardist John Bechdel (AoTW, False Icons, ex-Prong), and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso (ex-Megadeth, ex-Suicidal Tendencies, ex-Alice Cooper). Static X's Tony Campos has recently stepped in to fulfill bass duties on behalf of the recently departed Ministry/Killing Joke bassist Paul Raven. Joining the Ministry clan as a Special Featured Artist will be Fear Factory/Ascension of The Watchers vocalist Burton C. Bell. Main support is Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah and the opening act is the U.S.-based Hemlock.

The NYC shows are May 1st & May 2nd @ Irving Plaza. General on-sale begins December 1st, but the presale starts on Thursday. Tickets are $55. More details, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Ministry - 2008 "final world" Tour Dates, presale"

didn't mean to sleep on reporting this, sorry....

Paul Raven (CRED)

Paul Vincent Raven (January 16, 1961 – October 20, 2007) was a rock bassist best known for his work in the seminal post-punk/industrial group Killing Joke. He later played in alternative rock/industrial rock band Prong.......Raven also participated in Pigface........Raven worked as bassist in Godflesh......Raven began working with Al Jourgensen of Ministry for their latest album, Rio Grande Blood. In 2006, Raven completed a European and American tour with Ministry. Raven died of an apparent heart attack in his sleep on October 20, 2007 [Wikipedia]