Customer Reviews

Killing Joke

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When KJ released their debut album back in 1980, they should've issued some kind of manifesto as well, so that listeners would know exactly where they stood. To begin with, KJ are not easy listening...Jaz Coleman is not only one ugly baboon of a lead singer, he's not particularly pretty to listen to. Usually his voice is heavily processed, somewhat monotone (except when he's bellowing), and carrying messages of doom and decay. The drummer is a tribal pounder who rarely uses a hi-hat, the bassist is simplistic yet groovy, and the guitarist arpeggiates in a strange way and uses an odd choice of chords. Keyboards pop up here and there, often just one note pumping over and over. Basically, the music on here is a weird combination of metal, punk (as demonstrated on The Wait, which was covered by Metallica), new wave, and funk. Standout tracks are live favorites Requiem (covered by Foo Fighters), Wardance, Change, and Complications. The artwork seems to depict a bunch of teens having a jam session atop the Berlin Wall or something equally incomprehensible.

The philosophy espoused by this band on nearly every record for the last twenty five years is that people have suppressed their natural instincts, turned their back on the cosmic balance, and have thus become a bunch of perverted butchers. The Killing Joke take on tomorrow is that there is none; they borrowed the "No Future" slogan from the punks, and added "because the people in power will be slaughtering you". A very strange band that is probably not the least bit surprised that the world is currently teetering on the brink of collapse. This album is just the first installment of the Doomsday Book.

The true Godfathers of almost any modern heavy music out these days, these guys were/are criminally overlooked and undercredited for their influence and vision. As reviewer Chuck Eddy so aptly put it, this music 'sounds like it was made 1,000 years in the past or 1,000 years in the future' but it's hard to tell which.

Apocalyptic savagery at its best, (the band was still pulling a handful of tracks off this album on recent tours and, unfortunately, skipping over others entirely) this album set a standard that has yet to be matched by any other band. Self -produced and precise as a surgeon's scalpel in its delivery, this lp contains enduring classics that sound as fresh and original today as 20 years ago (how old were YOU then??)

Bands such as Big Black and Sepultura borrowed a few riffs off here for their own aural pounding, and Ministry has been very forthcoming about its influence on their sound. But only Killing Joke can walk the thin line between primal intensity and soaring beauty found on tracks such as "Requiem" and "The Wait" (which was feebly covered by Metallica.)

The perfect starting point for a quality music library.

With its steady pounding of polyrythmic drumming, which gave rise to later industrial music, and its scorching guitars and tribal vocals, Killing Joke was years ahead of its time. Despite the song listing saying $0.36 as one of its songs, it is actually SO36, which stands for SudOst 36 (southeast 36) a quadrant on the map of a then-divided Berlin. The picture in the sleeve of the album shows a devasted postwar Germany with children playing amid rubble. The sounds of this album can be considered either gothic or punk, or a mixture of both. The Wait is such a good song Metallica covered it on one of their albums. This is a must-buy for any fan of this genre.

What a debut LP... it continues to astonish me with it's cold, slamming power and apocalyptic messages. Nothing else like them when it came out or even now, 25 years later.

For those who haven't heard much Killing Joke, start with this record. Fans of Metallica not familiar with KJ may be surprised to hear what the original version of "The Wait" sounded like (I like both versions).

Killing Joke doesn't color within the lines when it comes to genre. They're loosely classifiable as "post-punk" of course, but while they have a dancey edge similar to Gang Of Four and Joy Division, they are a lot harsher and incorporate metal and early industrial influences into their tense and eerie sound.

While Gang Of Four and PIL were channeling anti-capitalism cynicism, and Joy Division were painting intensely personal portraits of despair and uncertainty, Killing Joke adopted the "No Future" nihilism of punk rock and added to it a feeling of paranoia and messages of doom, political corruption, and nuclear apocalypse. The overall sound is martial, abrasive, and distant, yet extremely catchy. Synthesizers pound and screech out repetitive beats; the rhythm section is tight, tribal, and groovy; Geordie's guitar rips through stark, squalling riffs; and Jaz Coleman's voice is either an in-your-face yell, distorted to an insectile rasp, or a floating and ominous prescence--the British-accented harbinger of doom and decay. Metal was generally too over-the-top to be taken seriously like this; punk rock was too snide and affected by comparison. This was and continues to be the real deal.

This 1979 debut is hands-down the band's best release. From creepy drones like Tomorrow's World and $.O.36 to tribal pounders (Change, Bloodspot, and Primitive), this is potent, pure, and unfettered material. And most noteworthy of all, this album has three stone-cold standards: The stark electro-anthems Requiem and Wardance, and the incredibly intense, driving The Wait (later covered by Metallica, and my all-time favorite Killing Joke track).

Killing Joke's first four albums (this, What's THIS For.., Revelations, and Fire Dances) set in stone the groundwork for industrial metal and noise rock bands like Ministry and Big Black, and are essential to any lover of metal, punk, grunge, and industrial. They never topped those albums--Night Time was decent but began Killing Joke's descent into synthy pop and later subpar quasi-metal. Their recent comeback 2003 album (also self-titled) with Dave Grohl on drums is good (especially considering these guys are nearly old enough to be Marilyn Manson's parents) but uninspired by comparison and, ironically, a bit too imitative of the outfits that were inspired by their own example. Oh well. Pick it up anyway, and support a undeservedly neglected and incredibly influential band.

Prophets of music. I can't help but think of that scene in the first Back to the Future movie where McFly plays electric 'johnny b good' for high school doo-woppers. Not that Killing Joke sounded even remotely like that...just the look on the kids faces, hearing something from the future. Amazing that this was over 20 years ago. In context, this is probably one of the most important records of rock music.

This is the only album I ever bought purely by its cover [LP in those days]. Each song has lived with me and in me these past twenty years. My youngest son bares the name of KJ's guitarist, that's how much this great band means to me....and even as a baby he got the beat! Amazing!
Along with Radio Birdman, The Saints, Wire & Gang of Four, Killing Joke make up my top five bands of all time. Definitely a must in everyones collection and then "...self destruct....at the count of ten...Complications, Complications.."

It began for me with the single, Is it me, or is it you?
Then I went backwards TO THIS record. How many times did I hear it? Still a bombastic statement today. Timeless. And Killing Joke was so damn professional on their first effort.
Tribal percussions crashing through concrete boundaries.
Engaging slam dancing to it's meanest.
Intellectually a doomsday payoff. All their albums pay homage to the end of life in decay.
Rhythmically a punk/metal infighting, this album etches itself through your skin. Showing it's dorsal fin at a time when punk was at a closing and post punk surfaced.
Requiem, with it's opening should be played in churches everywhere. And Wardance should make any punk bruise.
Nirvana, how could you copy them in Come As You Are?
No offense, I love them too. But to plagiarize?
No respect for the unknown band.
Change, is like a punk Led Zeppelin. Probably the best head shaking tune on the record.
No, this is a blunderbuster in the night.
If you like Killing Joke, buy the first five plus their comeback album Extremities, Dirt and Various Repressed Emotions.
A tight outfit, to say the least. Great musicians all.
Other similar bands would be, The Birthday Party, Voivod and The Effigies. But The Joke came first. No joke.
The line-up of albums shold be Wire/Pink Flag, Gang of Four /Entertainment, Killing Joke, then Joy Division/Unknown Pleasures and onwards.
Have a little hemlock, plug in your walkman, and listen to this intense lullaby while you drift off into sleep.
Most likely the best Killing Joke record to date.
It's was the eternal angst in them.

There is a direct line of descent from Killing Joke to Steve Albini, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson...even Metallica and Queens Of The Stone Age. The fact that so many bands and genres have reduced this sound into redundancy should not detract from this 1980 album that it epitomises the apocalyptic sound of 1980's so-called "post-punk."
A dark, bleak sound. Harsh vocals. Tight rhythms and thudding drums. Tracks like "The Wait," "Requiem" and "Wardance" have aged well, sounding better than most of the doom & gloom angst-schlock being passed off as heavy music today. A true underground classic.

This CD shows hoe modern Killing Joke still sound. While most of the post-punk bands managed to get badly produced there is something that remains very modern in Killing Joke's sound after more than 20 years. Songs like Requiem or Wardance sound like they could have been recorded today and they are not really post-punk in an overdone way.