We received the following Press Release from representatives for Sanctuary Records: 

Industrial Rock Pioneers MINISTRY Signs To Sanctuary Records;Live Debut CD SPHINCTOUR Slated For March 19th, 2002 Release DVD/VHS To Be Released on April 9th

At a time when trends are becoming skewed and hybrid artists are becoming the norm, Chicago�s MINISTRY still stands tall as a true innovator.  Initially experimenting with a fusion of menacing guitar riffery with electro-industrial samples & loops, the band essentially created the crossover genre of Industrial Hard Rock, serving as an influence to a wellspring of budding artists, from Nine Inch Nails and White Zombie to Fear Factory and Orgy.  The band more recently achieved notable success with tracks on the extremely popular Matrix soundtrack and in the Steven Spielberg film, A.I.  Now, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, MINISTRY has signed with Sanctuary Records, the home of other such genre definers as Megadeth, Biohazard and Rob Halford, as well as industrial-driven peers like Gravity Kills and Pitchshifter.

Possessing a flair for the enigmatic, the band spearheaded an unlikely marriage between harsh melancholy and black humor. Thus, the band�s March 19th debut release for Sanctuary is a special live album entitled SPHINCTOUR.  Recorded at various shows around the globe, the disc (and subsequent home video) captures MINISTRY in top form, mixing cold, calculated precision with raucous chaos in a circus of mayhem; the very crux of a MINISTRY performance.  The result is a more powerful and intense live release than even their own classic 1990 live EP IN CASE YOU DIDN�T FEEL LIKE SHOWING UP (which was recorded prior to, and therefore does not include tracks from band�s breakthrough, platinum-selling album PSALM 69).  Vocalist Al Jourgenson reminisces the energy transfer of a MINISTRY show: �We just hammered out one song after another, and I�d see all of these young headbangers and kids with shark-fin Mohawks getting winded. By the time we�d play �Thieves,� they had to play Tag Team Moshpit with their friends, because they couldn�t keep up with us cranky f**kers.�

MINISTRY plans to promote the signing and new release with a major headline tour occurring this summer, and is currently in the studio recording their debut studio album for Sanctuary.  �It�s going to be called ANIMOSITISOMINA,� beams Jourgenson. �It�s the word �animosity� spelled forwards and backwards, minus the �y.� It�s double the hatred and double the time on my hands...�  
 

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