Digital Music — September 28, 2009 at 11:47 am

Ministry’s Al Jourgensen records Christmas song in memory of Killing Joke’s Paul Raven

Al Jourgensen and Mark Gemini Thwaite

Is Uncle Al going soft? First ex-Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen lets slip plans to record a pop album, and now he’s announcing he’ll release a Christmas song — hey, just like Bob Dylan! — later this year in memory of late Killing Joke/Ministry bassist Paul Raven.

Building up to Tuesday’s release of Revolting Cocks remix disc Sex-O MiXXX-O, Jourgensen’s publicists today confirmed the industrial godfather is working on multiple projects with guitarist Mark Gemini Thwaite (Mission UK, Peter Murphy), who lent his remixing skills to the new collection, and laid down some guitar for RevCo’s next release, due next spring.

Jourgensen and Thwaite also have recorded an an-yet-untitled Christmas song in memory of Raven, who died of a heart attack in 2007. Raven, who replaced Youth as Killing Joke’s bassist in 1982 (and played the “Eighties” bassline that Nirvana allegedly lifted for its hit single “Come As You Are”), later jointed Pigface, Prong and, in 2005, Ministry. He also formed Mob Research with Thwaite just before his death.

Jourgensen and Thwaite will release the song in memory of their “favorite pirate” as a digital download around Thanksgiving, according to their publicists, but will first preview it as a free stream on Ministry’s MySpace page beginning Oct. 20, the second anniversary of Raven’s death. That same night, at RevCo’s tour stop in Jacksonville, Fla., the band will show a video collage of Raven’s life compiled by friend Dean Karr.

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