Disco de Killing Joke: “Killing Joke”

illing Joke's 1980 eponymous debut (not to be confused with their eponymous 2003 album) is a startling debut, in many ways sounding like it wasn't recorded a quarter century ago, but rather yesterday. The band's style joined tribal and dub rhythms with post punk guitars and suitably apocalyptic lyrics. The band (Jaz Coleman- vocals, keys, Geordie Walker- guitar, Youth- bass, Paul Ferguson- drums, vocals) produced a dazzling debut with some of their best and most memorable songs.

In many ways, its obvious how far ahead of their time they were, whether it be the proto-alternative drudging pace of "Requiem", the highly danceable "Wardance", or the funky "Change", the music on this album is far beyond what their contemporaries were doing. Certainly, it set the groundwork for several styles in the future-- so much so that Killing Joke has been classified as punk or goth or new wave or alternative or industrial or just simply post-punk. The truth is, these are all accurate, the band cover s a ton of ground here and set the stage for things to come. Yet the album maintains a unified sound throughout, Geordie's guitars maintain a sludging feel even when the pieces are more dance-oriented and Coleman paints a lyrical picture of coming chaos and apocalyptic visions (a theme largely found in the early KJ albums). This does unfortunately lead to uneven quality on the album, some tracks are largely disposable ("Tomorrow's World", "Bloodsport", "S.O.36"), but the remainder of the record is superb and the power of it more than makes up for some less inspired tracks.

This reissue is well worth the investment for fans and others, excluding everything else the sonic upgrade makes the album sound fresh and exciting-- the music is more in your face and not hidden below poor CD transfer. Listening to "The Wait", the level of detail alone on this that I had never heard is nothing short of astounding. This also includes several bonus tracks, two mixes of "Change" (the one included on the original CD release and a disposable dub mix), the "Requiem" single mix, and rough mixes for "Primitive" and "Bloodsport" that have more value from a curiosity standpoint than a critical one. The album's artwork has also been expanded by the artist and includes several pages of photographs of the band in the early days. the point is, this is well worth the investment for fans of the band.

I've always felt this album's followup ("what's this for...!") was a far more even effort, but the better material here is powerful and resonsant, moreso than the material on the followup. Highly recommended.

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).

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.."

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.