MMXII. Killing Joke

You can listen to a sampler of the album on Killing Joke's website


It was one of those Friday late afternoons. I had a few beers with friends after a week's work. Talking music, films, rehashing stories with a laugh. During dinner I put in a cd full of MP3s. After one song I identified as The Decemberists, an album set in that I did not recognize. Sluggish, loud and somewhat monotonous music set in, like wading through a bog, with a singer who was clearly straining his voice and had been doing so for years. Reading the news paper at the same time I noticed with a small start each time a new song started. While nothing seemed to change really, with the mostly mid-tempo metal like songs pounding away in the background. Still, it sounded quite all-right. I slowly got sucked in. Who are these guys?

Looking into the mp3 logs it said: Killing Joke. Killing Joke? Weren't that the guys from 'Love like blood'? I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm guessing that my friends and me were dancing to this song in 1986. Never heard from the band before and since. Bass player Youth (Martin Glover) is in a band with Paul McCartney nowadays, but that doesn't count as Killing Joke, does it?

And so the album continues. A completely pasted over sound. Totally filled into the nooks and crannies of the mix. The drums are very prominent, right in front in the middle, as if the drummer was allowed to make the mix. The voice keeps straining, but singer Jaz Coleman seems quite comfortable. 'Trance' sticks out some how. It vaguely resembles The Fudge's 'Morning comes after', which is at least ten times more inventive, but still it's a good song in its own right.

MMXII album starts somewhat surprising also. Pink Floyd as in 'Wish you were here' like pulses. Only as a start, because the band takes a left turn there straight away with a much heavier sound and after a bit into the song even heavier sound. This makes 'Pole shift' an intriguing song, inviting me to explore the album further. Despite the fact that I'm having trouble to keep track of the divides between songs, I'm pleasantly surprised by the album. E.g. Through the seamlessly endless rolling sounds on sounds on sounds on 'Colony collapse'.

Killing Joke is around since 1978 and after some years on halt around the millennium back on track for about a decade at present. This almost makes it surprising how vital MMXII sounds. Maybe for fans who are around for 30 odd years it's different, but for me, listening to my first Killing Joke album ever, this is quite all right. Slightly headbanging to 'Fema camp' I'm typing in these words. The fun thing is that I am able to delve into the past of Killing Joke to see whether the rest of their discography is worth while also, something I've truly missed out on. Yes, it's MMXII and Wo. has discovered Killing Joke.

Wo.

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You can order the album here