Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen recently opened up to Metal Hammer about the reformation of his main band, an event that the multitalented musician confirmed will lead to a new album and tour.

In the Metal Hammer interview, Jourgensen reveals that the decision to reunite Ministry came about through his Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters project.  Working alongside Rigor Mortis’ Mike Scaccia, the pair laid down a slew of tracks—five to seven tracks, says Jourgensen—that were missed the country mark set for that effort and landed closer to Ministry’s trademark sound.

Those tracks, at the behest of Scaccia, were salvaged and reworked in subsequent studio sessions by Prong’s Tommy Victor on guitar and Soulfly’s Tony Campos (who also worked on the Buck Satan project) along with Jourgensen and Scaccia.

Those reworked tracks, along with around five others, will be released sometime before Christmas as Ministry’s next album, Relapse.

“I think this is actually gonna wind up being the fastest and heaviest record I’ve ever done,” said Jourgensen of the new Ministry material in his Metal Hammer interview. “J ust because we did it as anti-therapy therapy against the country music we would just take days off and thrash faster than I’ve done in a long time, faster than Mikey’s done in a long time.”

“It’s gonna be brutal and it’s gonna freak a lot of people out,” he added.

The tour associated with the album will reportedly feature the lineup of Jourgensen and Sciacca along with Campos and Victor. That tour, however, will be remarkably small on the advice of Jourgensen’s doctors following his recent ulcer-related health issues.

“We’re doing four shows in the States next June. The Nokia Theatre in L.A., 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,” he said of the tour.

Ministry’s last live dates, dubbed their C-U-LaTour, took place March-May 2008, with Jourgensen claiming throughout its duration that the band would not get back together.

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Photo by Raymond Flotat.