KILLING JOKE- MMXII
KILLING JOKE- MMXII
15 Killing Joke records later we find ourselves at the new release titled aptly ‘2012’. I became a fan of Killing Joke when I was a teenager buying their second record ‘What’s This for..!’ This record was highly influential on me and showed me a completely new way of writing music altogether different from the typical Punk Rock I was listening to in the late eighties and early nineties. I remember my brother making fun of me for listening to the album because there aren’t any cymbal hits on the entire recording. Which I think maybe true but thought I heard one once. Regardless, that record rules! I first learned of this band because of the Exploited. Sounds weird enough but if you look at Wattie on the cover of ‘Horror Epics’ you can see many bands splayed across his shirt. I used to look at the record cover to try and discover new bands from his shirt and Killing Joke was one of those bands. It blows my mind that the original line up is still recording together. They came together to do the last album ‘Absolute Dissent’ as well. These are men in their 50’s and not only are they writing amazing music but putting together the best record I have heard this year, hands down. I didn’t even know that they were still at it, I had no idea about the 2010 release, so I was genuinely stoked when I heard they had new record. Literally as soon as I heard the first track I was blown away. The feeling and texture that is traversed on this album is unparalleled by any other bands going. That is I mighty thing to say, I understand, but the proof is in the pudding. Killing Joke crosses boundaries of Punk, Post-punk, Industrial, New Wave, hard rock and Gothic adding a political twist with the greatest of ease, sometimes within the same song. They have a unique ability to have their eighties sound without sounding dated. Perfect example is the song ‘Trance’; it may remind one of their old song’ Psyche’ but at the same time sounding very new and relative. Every song has an emotional signature and great musical hook that sticks in your brain and will not leave. To have a song that is as hard driving but as bleak sounding as ‘Fema Camp’ and an almost joyful romp as ‘On All Hallow’s Eve’ on the same record is astounding. The tempo changes explored leave one never bored of what they are hearing like in the song ‘Pole Shift’. It starts mellow but breaks into a fanatic up tempo gyration that will leave you humming the melody hours later; this just proves that this is an extraordinary recording. Or the song ‘New Uprising’ with its crazy synthesizers almost reminds me of KMFDM or something but not as cheesy. After you hear a song you can’t wait to take in the next one. For me this will go down as one of “those” records. I know this will spin on my record player for years to come. (Attucks)
ThrashPunx 