Like a mid-20th century funhouse gone mad, Ministry’s official video for the track ‘Victims of a Clown’ is a relentless hallucinogenic ride through images of creepy clowns roaming circuses where there are no exits, men parading in ghoulish gas masks, psychological messaging, physical reality bending and nightmarish suburbia. And then there’s DJ Swamp’s couture.

‘Victims of a Clown’ was produced and directed by Chris Roth and Steve Roth of The Other House Productions, the same team that created Ministry’s surreal and provocative ‘Twilight Zone’ video as well as ‘I’m Invisible’ for Jourgensen’s side project, Surgical Meth Machine.

“For the ‘Victims of a Clown’ video, we strived for a drastic stylistic departure from ‘Twilight Zone,” said Chris Roth. “‘This video is a much more raw, down-and-dirty, crunchy graphic art film.”

One of the stronger tracks from the album, this is less thrash industrial Ministry and more brooding and menacing. The grooving bass gives way to a sparse and raw vocal delivery and a big anthem of a chorus.

Filmed in Los Angeles late last year, the entire video was shot exclusively with handheld cameras and the band was lit with extreme rapid flash lighting that limited the final palette of the video to only three colours – black, white and red. “The end result”, Steve Roth added, “is very powerful. Loaded with raw energy and power.”

The video is an incredibly well polished final product. Grainy and distorted with a behind the scenes feel to it, quickly cut with stock footage and the occasional barrage of lyrics.

Hopefully some of this imagery will be used on their upcoming UK tour with Chelsea Wolfe. Dates below: