Killing Joke

Discussion
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Well… To be quite honest I’ve never listened to Killing Joke, ever. Never cared to, but I’ve seen WAAAAAY too much about them pop on this board over the years so I finally caved in and downloaded some of their stuff. Really great band, and I’ve actually heard a few of their songs before and never knew it was them. So far the only albums I’ve heard are Democracy and the self titled. Any album in particular that I should go grab? One of my other online friends sez that “What’s This For…!” and “Fire Dances” are crucial. True? False?

Peace!

Krowe

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Any album in particular that I should go grab? One of my other online friends sez that “What’s This For…!” and “Fire Dances” are crucial. True? False?

Certainly, the first five KJ albums are arguably their strongest:

Killing Joke (1980)
What’s THIS For? (1981)
Revelations (1982)
Fire Dances (1983)
Night Time (1985)

These albums are guitar-driven post punk with tribal beats, sometimes bordering on weird (Revelations), other times ready for the dance floor. Night Time is the most polished-sounding of the bunch, and sports a couple of their most popular songs (Love Like Blood, Eighties). Jaz’s vocals do not have that choppy ‘growl’ that he likes to use on Democracy and other more recent albums.

If you like the sound of Democracy, I recommend you get Pandemonium (1994). It’s hard-hitting alternative rock, with tinges of industrial and metal. It has more memorable songs than Democracy, and sounds great loud. You mentioned you have the self-titled KJ…are you referring to the 2003 Killing Joke LP or the 1980 debut?

One other album you will probably like is 1989’s Extremeties, Dirt, and Various Repressed Emotions. Unless you’re a Martyn Atkins hater, you’ll probably like the feel of this one. It’s very dark and guitar driven, though the songs probably aren’t their strongest. Still, a good one to have.

That’s pretty much their catalog (not counting compilations), except for these two:

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns (1986)
Outside The Gate (1988)

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns is almost a pop album, with it’s myriad of hooks, programmed drums on some songs, and heavy layers of synths. Jaz’s vocals have never been more melodic, and a KJ album has never sounded so, er, “bright”. It’s very late-80’s in sound and style. Some KJ fans hate it, some love it. It’s one of the first albums I heard by them, and I always thought it was great on its own merit. Strong songwriting, some good guitar hooks (though diminished on this LP compared to other KJ albums), and a few good dance tunes.

Outside The Gate is probably a unanimous choice for worst Killing Joke album ever. It’s as if Jaz fired everybody except Geordie, and attempted to make an all out pop album. Unlike Brighter, Outside suffers from very poor songwriting, cringe-inducing lyrics, badly dated synth and drum machines, and some of Geordie’s most-forgettable guitar tracks (if that’s even him on the LP). The artwork looks thrown together, too. I think there’s one decent song, “My Love Of This Land”, which sounds like it could’ve been on Brighter. If you can download that one song, it’s all you’ll need from this train wreck. The single, “America”, is just plain terrible, easily the worst song of their career.

To answer your question, I’d say the first five albums are all crucial, not just the two you listed.

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tenohtwo’s right…and if the s/t album you heard was their debut from 1980, then you need to go out and buy the one from 2003 (yellow with the evil clown head) RIGHT NOW. Best. Album. Ever.

I would say check out Pandemonium first, b/c its the closest in sound to Democracy and also their most “industrial” album ever, very much akin to Ministry and since you obviously like Ministry… Pandemonium was the first KJ I ever heard and it got me hooked. Some of the finest industrial rock ever.

Next I’d say check out Night Time. Its them at the peak of their new wave fusion sound (somewhat gothy on account of “Love Like Blood” but not cheesy gothy more in the ambience) so its kinda poppy and upbeat but still a great CD (esp. if you have that occasional hankering to hear Jaz sing instead of growl). If you really like Night Time, I mean most if not all of it, then you should check out Brighter Than a Thousand Suns…its alot more poppy and there’re 80’s synths all over the place but its still a good cd…

If you like Extremities and the first s/t album from 1980 then its safe to say you’ll dig the other 3 albums after their debut. The only CD to really avoid is Outside the Gate, which is god-awful. Like Flock of Seagulls’s retarded brother.

24

I particularly like the track “The Wait” (Killing Joke 1980) the best I think. I don’t know why. Every song on the new one. Any other favourite tracks that you really like?

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Some of my favorite tracks, in no order:

Love Like Blood
Darkness Before Dawn
Tabazan
Love Of The Masses
Sanity
Blood On Your Hands
Let’s All Go (To The Fire Dances)
The Wait
Pssyche
Exorcism
Aeon
Jana
Medicine Wheel
Democracy

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I also didn’t mind Metallica’s cover of The Wait. Thought it was well done.

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I also didn’t mind Metallica’s cover of The Wait. Thought it was well done.

Yeah, I like it too. In fact, it’s on an mp3 compilation in my car. Hell, I like that one cover better than their last three albums combined! After the Black album in '91, nothing has impressed me.

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I agree. And Justice For All is an amazing album - the production quality and riffs on that was extremely well done. Garage Days was cool too. I’m sure Killing Joke got lots of $$ in royalties…

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i don’t understand why people like fire dances.
can someone please explain it to me?

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I heard The Wait long before I ever knew of Killing Joke. Metallica, of all people, covered it on their Garage Days Revisited $5.98 EP and I immediately thought it was one of the best tracks they had ever done. Now that I know it gives instant credibility to KJ in my eyes. I have the 1980 S/T. If the '03 one is better than that then I’ll definately have to pick it up.

Thanks for the recommendations and info. I’ll definately stay away from Gate, cuz I’m not huge on the synth pop 80’s sounding stuff unless it’s done right (aka With Sympathy, Depeche Mode, The Cure, etc)…

Peace!

Krowe

31

Im going to cover “Adorations” one day I swear. THAT song is synthpop at its absolute finest…well, tied with “Love Like Blood.”

Also for their industrial moments the Charlie Clouser remixes of “Democracy” on the single are damn good (but then so is everything he mixes).

And Krowe, I dont know if its neccessarily better per se, but you need to get the 2003 s/t album (yellow with evil clown head). Just an amazing, amazing CD with all the ingredients of their first: brutal punk/metal with droning simplistic keyboard textures…only this one is ALOT meaner. Jardd from Chemlab said “killing joke: the whole “death and resurrection show” (its proposed title before becoming s/t) disc. brutal and unrelenting. proves they’re still vital after over twenty years.” and he’s right. EVERY Ministry fan should own it.

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Nice one. I’ll definately make sure to get a copy of it. I’m never one to piss on what Jared says. I LOVE Chemlab. =)

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Killing Joke’s apparently going to be re-releasing most of their older albums remastered w/ bonus tracks–so it might be worth waiting to pick up some of those discs!

Check out the new official site–lots of cool stuff on it:

http://www.killingjoke.com/

For example–video for “Seeing Red” from the last album:

http://www.killingjoke.com/uploads/video/seeing_red.mov

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And Krowe, I dont know if its neccessarily better per se, but you need to get the 2003 s/t album (yellow with evil clown head). Just an amazing, amazing CD with all the ingredients of their first: brutal punk/metal with droning simplistic keyboard textures…only this one is ALOT meaner. Jardd from Chemlab said “killing joke: the whole “death and resurrection show” (its proposed title before becoming s/t) disc. brutal and unrelenting. proves they’re still vital after over twenty years.” and he’s right. EVERY Ministry fan should own it.

I’ll just echo these sentiments. I’m not even a KJ fan, and I was absolutely blown away by the last record. Needless to say, it is my favorite KJ album, but on top of that, it may be one of my favorite albums by any band. That is how much I love it. There’s even a track called “Inferno” that didn’t make the album listing, that is absolutely killer.

35

Oh yeah, forgot about that…there are 2 versions Krowe, each with a bonus track…“War Dance (The Ultimate Version)” and “Inferno.” Whatever version you get, make sure you download the other track as both are excellent (Inferno rocks so hard I think it shoulda been on the album as it is, I think its better than some of the album tracks themselves.

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don’t forget to track down zennon. i think it was the b side to seeing red.

37

The funny thing is when I heard 80’s I thought of Nirvana, now I know why…

38

Why has no-one mentioned Pandemonium?

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I agree. And Justice For All is an amazing album - the production quality and riffs on that was extremely well done.

are you serious??? the production on it blows - there is no bass!!! they even admitted that temselves… no wonder the live versions of justice songs ruled over album ones completely.

40

Why has no-one mentioned Pandemonium?

I actually did talk about it on page 1 of this thread, albeit briefly. I like Pandemonium a lot, and was fortunate to see KJ on that very tour (my first time seeing them live). They opened the show with Communion - what a great choice. Their more-aggressive update of “Love Like Blood” was phenomenal. I wish I had a soundboard boot of that show.

The first song I heard from Pandemonium was Exorcism, via a limited-edition CD single which I still have today. The mixes on that CD are incredible. I love how that song just stomps along - it could almost be labelled as ‘rave metal’. In regards to the rest of the album, there really isn’t a bad song. ‘Millenium’ might be a little weak, but that’s about as bad as it gets, and it’s a decent tune. “Black Moon”, “Labyrinth”, “Jana”, and “Mathematics Of Chaos” are among my other favorites on this album.

When I was in a band in '95, I tried to convince everyone that we should cover Exorcism - it would’ve worked great in our set (we finally agreed on NIN’s “Heresy”). I think that most of the members here who are more into the hard and heavy stuff would really like this album. It’s great for parties, too. :wink:

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