"Permawar" (stylized as "PermaWar") is a song by American

industrial metal Industrial metal is the fusion of Heavy metal music, heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating Heavy metal guitar, metal guitar riffs, sampling (music), sampling, synthesizer or music sequencer, sequencer lines, and Distor ...

band Ministry. It is the third track and the only single from the band's thirteenth studio album, ''

From Beer to Eternity ''From Beer to Eternity'' is the thirteenth studio album by American industrial metal band Ministry, released on September 6, 2013, by 13th Planet Records. Although frontman Al Jourgensen had previously stated that this was going to be Ministry ...

''. It was released on August 9, 2013 as a digital download.

Lyrics

According to Al Jourgensen's interview with Kenny Herzog of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' magazine, "PermaWar" is based on

Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow ( ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. She hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special event ...

's book '' Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power''. The song lyrically criticizes "the multi-million dollar industry that war has become".

Music video

The music video for the song was filmed at Jourgensen's 13th Planet compound in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

. It was produced by Jourgensen's wife, Angelina Lukacin-Jourgensen, and directed by filmmaker and animator Zach Passero, who also directed other Ministry music videos, including "Lieslieslies", "GhoulDiggers" and " 99 Percenters". Like the song, the music video draws upon political themes. In the video, Jourgensen portrays three different personalities, taking the form of three different points of view on America's policies on war: the corrupt political leader, the predatory business man and the passive observer. The music video also features vintage clips of missile launches, trenches with dead bodies, and military exercises, which were taken from footage of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. It also contains

audio sample In sound and music, sampling is the reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, or sound effects. A sample might comprise only a fragment of sound, or a l ...

s of president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's speeches about

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

Personnel

Ministry

Al Jourgensen Alain David Jourgensen (born Alejandro Ramírez Casas; October 9, 1958) is a Cuban-American singer, musician and music producer. Closely related with the independent record label Wax Trax! Records, his musical career spans four decades. He is t ...

– vocals, guitars, production, mixing *

Mike Scaccia Michael Ralph Scaccia ( ; June 14, 1965 – December 22, 2012) was an American musician, best known as a guitarist for several heavy metal and alternative rock acts, including Rigor Mortis, Ministry and Revolting Cocks. Life and career Scacci ...

– guitars *

Sin Quirin Sinhue "Sin" Quirin is an American guitarist based in Burbank, California. He came to prominence as a member of industrial metal band Ministry and its side projects, and as a primary songwriter on their albums ''The Last Sucker'' and ''From Beer ...

– guitars *

Tony Campos Antonio Campos (born March 8, 1973) is an American musician. He is the current bassist for the industrial metal bands Static-X and Fear Factory and the vocalist and bassist for the extreme metal band Asesino. He has previously played with Prong ...

– bass *

Aaron Rossi Aaron John Rossi (December 6, 1980 – January 27, 2025) was an American drummer, most notable for his performance with industrial metal band Ministry and heavy metal band Prong. He was nominated for a Grammy at the 52nd Grammy Awards Th ...

– drums

Additional personnel

* Sammy D'Ambruoso – production * Aaron Havill – keyboards,

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

* Allan Amato – artwork

References

External links

* {{Ministry (band) 2013 singles 2013 songs Ministry (band) songs Songs written by Al Jourgensen Protest songs Song recordings produced by Al Jourgensen