It’s nearly four years since I attended a show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (The Wildhearts PHUQ anniversary show) and I always seem to forget how good a venue it is — big enough to feel like an event on the scale of those at Brixton Academy or the Kentish Town Forum, but small enough to feel intimate and immediate, particularly when you’re down on the floor like I was here.

The night kicked off sharp with Brighton/London four piece Grave Lines, a bonus to me as I was only expecting the one support act, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.

Bookending their set with a wall of guitar noise they delivered slow, heavy and filthily furious hardcore infused metal over what I think was three and half songs in 30 minutes — by their own admission they don’t do short songs.

Combining stoner/doom style grooves and pace with a mix of cleaner and nicely growled vocals they caught the attention of the audience from the off and set the mood for the night nicely.

This was thanks to a frontman with great presence, without overdoing things, and a guitarist who looked like he’d stepped from a Viking raid and in many ways led the music and also had a larger than life presence.

I also have to mention their drummer whose sheer power could put most male drummers I know to shame.

More in-keeping with what I was expecting out of a support act tonight were LA based quintet 3teeth.

Across a little over 45 minutes they delivered a set of fabulously dirty industrial metal of the sort I wouldn’t expect to hear from a new band, but they managed to give it a fresh feel.

Despite a very processed sound across the board, as one would expect from the style, their performance brought an intoxicating organic energy with all members of the band clearly giving their absolute all – I’m amazed Xavier Swafford’s keyboard survived the set the amount it was getting bashed around.

Central to the whole thing though was frontman Alexis Mincolla who brought that heady mix of unspecifically twisted sexuality and danger to proceedings continuing a theme that can be traced back through the genre to Marilyn Manson, Trent Reznor and Til Lindeman, but with it he brought a sense that this was real and not just ‘part of an act’.

As the set went in there was one point where it seemed the pit they were inducing was getting a bit too much but that didn’t really slow things up as the band rode the energy of the audience to create a fabulous noise.

The last time I saw Ministry live was back in 2008 on, what was then, their final tour at the Kentish Town Forum.

While an intense experience, due to being sat in the balcony I had felt somewhat disconnected from the performance so had big expectations as I stood only two rows back from the security barrier on the floor this time.

As the set began with an intro tape of I Know Words, lampooning Donald Trump in audio and video as projected on the screen at the back of the stage, and then the band roared in Twilight Zone from most recent album Amerikkkant, I have to admit it seemed like Al Jourgensen might be a little off step.

I needn’t have worried though as by the time they hit second track Victims Of A Clown his energy was matching, or often surpassing, that of the rest of the band as he became the deranged ringleader of this punishing circus of sensory overload.

Be it the volume and intensity of the music or the startling visuals projected or the sheer ‘in your face’ performance on stage it all served to be literally the only thing the mind could cope with becoming all encompassing and at times uncomfortable but in an entirely suitable way.

For the first part of the set, as Jourgensen described it ‘the political stuff,’ they played through Amerikkkant in full bringing a vibrancy to the music that didn’t quite make it to record (though it’s still a great album) without a pause for breath that was highlighted by Wargasm and a blistering Antifa complete with the antifascist movement’s flag flying not just onstage but in the crowd too.

While the crowd were positively engaged throughout it was when the band returned to the stage for a curfew pushing encore that things really kicked off as Ministry tore through a collection of their ‘greatest hits’.

So we got the likes of Stigmata, Thieves, NWO, Just One Fix and, my personal favourite from the Psalm 69 album, Jesus Built My Hotrod (which they hadn’t played last time I saw them).

During this the entire floor became a writhing pit raging and swirling with visceral energy and the band clearly fed off this on stage (not that they had been low energy previously).

As this was all reaching a crescendo, and feeling like it couldn’t go much further, Jourgensen and co. did a great switch and closed the night on an acoustic version of (Everyday Is) Halloween.

This rounded off the night on a brilliant counterpoint moment, giving the whole thing a very complete feel despite the two obviously rather separate sets making for, if maybe not one of the best shows I’ve been to (it’s getting hard to tell), certainly the most intense and sensory overloading one, which is just what you’d want out of a Ministry show, and with two tremendous support acts thrown into the mix for good measure too.