KILLING JOKE

Hosannas from the Basement of HELL (Edel)
The Joke have never been popular in ‘trendy’ circles and have on times been considered a, well… a Joke! But those of us that have had patience and taken the time to stick with them have been rewarded with some pretty breath taking sounds on times. A quarter of a century plus since those first groundbreaking releases, the Joke have not moved on that much, no Primal Scream style changes of direction or any concept albums (although they have impressively dabbled with some rather respectable remixes). What they have done is plough the same old furrow of anthem like distorted guitars and keybords, but drag into it a vast range of ideas along the way. Over the years, Dub, Middle Eastern vibes and even orchestral arrangements have slipped in to the studio for a look around, had a coffee and exited; leaving bits of themselves stuck to the turbo charged pagan amps, which vibrate to the mighty power of the Joke. Their last album, the second one to be just called ‘Killing Joke’, demonstrated that there is life in the old dog yet, shocked many by managing to blow everything else out of the water and was probably their finest moment. It was going to be a tough act to follow but this album has a damned fine try. Reaching back and recreating the style of the early sounds, but with the benefit of experience and hindsight, they show today’s youth how to make earth shattering 21st century rock, just as they always have done. Killing Joke have influenced everyone who likes their rock dirty distorted and loud since 1979, from Ministry, through Metalica, to Nirvana and beyond. No doubt this album will motivate kids to pick up their guitars and plug into their fuzz box and try something a little bit different, but after all these years it is unlikely they will become ‘trendy’. But who cares?

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