4 LP’s, one Yellow, one Red, one Clear and one Black vinyl…of course I had to have it ! Nothing clever or complicated here, it’s a chronological presentation of KJ’s singles from 1979 to 2012. It does exactly what a singles compilation should do. 

You can tell a lot about a band from their singles collection. Killing Joke’s early singles like “Wardance”, “Requiem” and “Empire Song” did as much as anyone to define Post-Punk. “Follow The Leaders” raged against the times and shifted the protest to the dancefloor. The “Night Time” era singles tempered some of their extremes and introduced them to a fresh audience, some of whom will have been along for the ride ever since.

Killing Joke are a treasure and over the years have perhaps not been accorded the respect they deserve. They are cited as influences and have been covered by bands including Rammstein, Metallica <spit>, Fear Factory, Prong and Helmet. It’s about time they were given their dues and this collection goes a long way to explaining why that should be so.

Follow The Leader - https://youtu.be/uPWQfAv_qBQ?si=XRDa1iu1yH1i_cTC

A lot of artists release eponymous albums. Not many artists release two eponymous albums. Killing Joke’s debut album in 1983 was titled “Killing Joke” and so was this, their 11th studio album released in 2003. The copy I own is a 2021 re-issue on lovely Purple vinyl. Now there are many reasons for getting excited about a new Killing Joke album, it’s new music for a start off and the anticipation of whether Geordie can add to his stunning collection of pummelling riffs being a couple I can think of. It seems a lot of people got excited about this one purely because some bloke who used to be in a 3 piece band from Seattle played drums on it. Oh well, I guess there’s a chance that some new KJ converts were made.

Let’s get something else cleared up, some people describe this as KJ’s “heavy metal” album…it’s not, OK ? Heavy Metal is mindless fretw@nk concerned with dragons, girls, drinking and singing about itself. This is Killing Joke a band with a mission, a purpose and something to say, about as different from the schoolboy themes of Heavy Metal as it’s possible to get. 

A thing that likely doesn’t get levelled at Killing Joke very often is that, occasionally, between all the brain crushing riffage they write bloody good pop songs and this albums “You’ll Never Get To Me” is one of them. It wasn’t issued as a single but it should have been, it’s got hit written all over it to my ears (I do appreciate that my ears are significantly different to most other people’s and this wouldn’t be the first time something I thought had hit written all over it disappeared without a trace).Ultimately though this is a Killing Joke album, they’re really not going to move far from what they do and do very well. 

I suppose I have to address the drumming. Bassist Youth had met Dave Grohl, a long time KJ fan, while KJ were sans drummer and he expressed a desire to play on their album. The original idea was to to have 3 different drummers on the record, Grohl, John Dolmayan (System Of A Down) and Danny Carey (Tool), but when Dave Grohl heard the songs he wanted to do all of it. In a highly back to front move the band recorded the album (presumably with a drum machine) and Grohl recorded the drums last, in one 5 day session in LA. Band and drummer never played together. I don’t know whether it’s my low opinion of Grohl and his meagre “talents” that colours my thoughts here, but it sounds like it. When all is taken into account he really ain’t no Big Paul Ferguson.

“Killing Joke (2023]” is heavy, loud and filled with a righteous fury about the state of the world we’ve built and are responsible for. Rolling Stone magazine rated it a 2 out of 5 saying “all the humorless gloom and doom feels oppressive after a while” which is a better explanation for why I’ve never read Rolling Stone magazine than anything I could write. 

You'll Never Get To Me - https://youtu.be/54t9Qw4EEEM?si=b_BVp4M32WZ9Hl6F

“Pandemonium’ is Killing Joke’s ninth studio album, it’s also the first album of theirs that I bought. By 1994 I’d seen them live 4 times, I had a couple of their singles but I’d never bought one of their albums. On hearing the title track from this one I finally made a purchase.

I watched the Killing Joke documentary, “The Death And Resurrection Show”, a couple of times while confined to quarters during the Covid lockdowns. Apart from proving that they are all genuinely bonkers, there was some great footage of them recording parts of this album inside the Great Pyramid of Giza (a feat that took not a little bribery of Egyptian officials it seems). The vocal tracks for title track “Pandemonium", "Exorcism" and "Millennium" were recorded in the King's Chamber at Giza. If you watch the documentary you’ll hear how some very strange things happened inside that chamber, the batteries to power the equipment that should have lasted 8 to 10 hours were drained in 15 minutes due, allegedly, to some weird properties of the pyramid ! You get some bands putting cartoons of the Pyramids on their album covers but the Joke actually went inside the greatest of them and recorded, now that IS some bonkers heavy shit.

This album has a more sequenced feel about it, there’s more technology at play, it’s more industrial in style than “Extremities…” 4 years earlier. It’s evident from the off on the song “Pandemonium”. Geordie lays waste to all around him while Jaz sings of supernatural aeons, nuclear families and the pipes of Pan. “Exorcism” is flat out scary and I gotta admit I have no clue what they are singing about (“Behind the illusion of reality, Are forces that speak to me, We will draw them out”) I tend to lose myself in the rhythmic onslaught they are laying down. You get no pause to draw breath as “Millennium” is next and this ain’t no take on the fat dancer from Stoke. Jaz Coleman was obviously expecting some great revelation as we entered the 21st century, I wonder if he found what he wanted?

That trio of songs recorded in the Great Pyramid were all released as singles…No hits were forthcoming…although there are those moments where they are capable of making great “pop” songs. “Jana” may have Jaz roaring out the chorus but the verses are reminiscent of “Night Time”s lighter sound. That is more than made up for by the following “Whiteout”, to describe it as intense is an understatement. No one does stuff like this but Killing Joke.

I really have no idea what the theme of this album is, I don’t really need to know. I just love to get lost in the intensity and violence of this music. Conversely I know from previous records that Killing Joke are good people, bonkers, but good people, I may not know the themes but I do know there’s nothing contentious in here. Those three songs recorded in the Great Pyramid really set this record up as something special. Killing Joke are a very acquired taste, this isn’t light and airy it’s raw and, in places, disturbing. As the saying goes “Sometimes music can soothe and heal…but fuck that, this is Killing Joke”

Exorcism - https://youtu.be/_UIHti9ptjA?si=snmyWPIIxf6jiNPG