Killing Joke Killing Joke

Killing Joke singer Jaz Coleman’s reputation as post-punk’s own Nostradamus has always been undermined by the fact that we have not yet reached the end of the world. However, global events have added weight to his prophecies and fuelled the most incendiary Killing Joke album in over 20 years. From the opening barrage of “The Death and Resurrection Show”, this is classic Killing Joke, as Coleman pours fire and brimstone over everything from oil-pillaging wars and Britain’s kow-towing to the US, to GM crops and earth-threatening asteroids. The jackhammer grooves are beefed up by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, returning a debt owed since Nirvana borrowed a KJ riff for “Come As You Are”. Otherwise KJ have rarely boasted such songs to match their sound. “Loose Cannon” returned the band to the Top 40 after nine years; “Blood On Your Hands” is timely and disturbing, while the reflective, melodic “You’ll Never Get To Me” shows that the calm can be just as effective as the storm.

Betty Clarke, The Guardian