“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

This album starts with the song that I was in attendance for the filming of the video that first time I saw Killing Joke, “Money Is Not Our God”. It’s one of the songs that, if I was asked to play something to somebody who had no idea about Killing Joke, would be at the forefront of my thinking. 

This is more like the Killing Joke I am used to. “Night Time” is great but it’s a little bit KJ-lite. Here we are back to battering ram riffs, earthquake drums and furious, slightly manic vocals. Lyrically it’s very much about raging at capitalism, consumerism, people as property, workers inside a system stacked against them, how humanity needs a return to a more natural existence, it’s pretty intense stuff.

“I turn and face the sun

Then all my troubles fall behind me like a shadow

In solitude, Solitude”

“Money Is Not Our God” sets the scene and subject matter for the whole album. Drummer Martin Atkins (PiL, the Damage Manual, Pigface and now the Joke) and bass-man Youth lay down a pounding foundation. Geordie Walker string scrapes into rolling guitar riff. Jaz Coleman’s voice ranges from normality at the start to downright deranged by the time we reach the chorus. 

“Do you grovel to your master? Do you beg like a dog?

First things first, repeat to yourself

AHHH MONEY!, Money is not our GOD!”

He’s raging against hoarding wealth (“So busy trying to make a living i forget about life”) and advocating a return to nature and an appreciation of the natural world 

“MINE! The best things in life are free

MINE! I own the beach and the blazing sunset

MINE! I own the waves and the fresh air

MINE! I drink the milk of the stars in this beautiful moment

Say to yourself…ALL THESE THINGS ARE MINE!”

All very hippy for these heavy, heavy Punk rockers. “Age Of Greed” does exactly what the title suggests, a driving backing track over which Jaz screams his manifesto (“Your money, my time, Your stinking industrial bathwater, my wine”). “Inside The Termite Mound” likens people working their lives away to Termites serving the mound. “Solitude” has him wantimg to be separated from the modern world to find his peace alone.

If you are looking for melody and light you’ll not find it here. If you want fast and furious coupled to righteous ire step this way.

Money Is Not Our God - https://youtu.be/0vVDWQlHLOE?si=A4T0Kd7VXN3q-QyQ

I first saw Killing Joke in 1990, in Chicago. I was on tour with The Wonder Stuff and we were to begin our jaunt around the States at The Cabaret Metro, up on North Clark Street near Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs and as featured in the Blues Brothers) on 30th September. We were in town on the 29th and Killing Joke were playing at the same venue that night. So we all trooped off to see the show. I don’t recall much about the gig other than at one point fake Dollar bills rained down on us from the ceiling. We found out later they were filming the video for the single “Money Is Not Our God”. Turns out it was quite a marker in my gig going history as Killing Joke are one of only 3 acts (other than bands I’ve worked for which don’t really count) that I have seen live as many times or more than The Jam! The others being Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and Rammstein !!

I’d known about Killing Joke since the early ‘80’s. Their single “Follow The Leader” was a big tune in the Post-Punk/Futurist clubs me and Deb were wont to hand out in. Then in 1985 EG Records cleaned them up, dressed them up, had some soft focus promo shots taken, made some shiny videos and managed to get a bona fide hit single outta them, “Love Like Blood” reaching #16 in the UK charts and I’m sure I remember seeing them on Top Of The Pops, incredible. It’s a fabulous single built for the dancefloor at the time but retaining one of Geordie Walker’s monster riffs. Can we just take a moment to appreciate Geordie Walker. The man drives Killing Joke with those behemoth riffs, in much the same way Tony Iommi did for Black Sabbath, and no-one else sounds anything like him. He is also, when playing live, swaying around wielding his signature gold top 1952 Gibson ES-295 the very definition of the phrase “cool as fuck”.

Talking of riffs one other on here is known to many of us in one form or another. I always had in mind that “Eighties” was as big a hit as “Love Like Blood” but on looking up the numbers it appears it only reached #60. It must have made an impression over in Seattle however as sometime later on Nirvana lifted “Eighties” signature guitar motif and retitled it “Come As You Are”…chancers.

There was another single released from from “Night Time”, the very, very wonderful “Kings And Queens”, not as well known as the other two but it actually reached a higher chart position than the better known “Eighties”, #58. It’s built on another huge, stuttering Geordie Walker riff and you should take it in by clicking the link below.

“Night Time” was a very cleanly produced record (by Rolling Stones producer Chris Kimsey), very obviously aimed at getting the band a higher profile, and it worked, it gave Killing Joke a brief moment in the “pop star” sunshine. The essence of Killing Joke is very much still here it’s just been given a wax and polish and a shampoo and set to clean it up for a more genteel audience. Have no fear, they soon returned to their extremities, dirt and other repressed emotions as we will discover.

Kings And Queens - https://youtu.be/ruWPc_9AqPM?si=M7nxeKxiKiGrAZeA