KILLING JOKE are on a mission to take their music of resistance to a whole new level with their sixteenth studio album, “Pylon”, due on October 23 via Spinefarm Records.
The band has shared the lyric video for “I Am the Virus”, the lead track from “Pylon”. Check it out below. “I Am The Virus” is described by KILLING JOKE’s Youth as “an intense, angry, uncompromising shout into the abyss” and it provides a typically bitter taste of the “delights” to come.
With the original lineup of Jaz Coleman, Geordie, Youth, and Big Paul continuing to hold firm, KILLING JOKE will headline shows around the world, starting with a U.K. run in October. “Pylon” was produced in the U.K. and Prague by the band and Tom Dalgety, whose credits include the hugely successful “Royal Blood” album.
The album isn’t designed to accompany a quiet night at home in front of the fire; “Pylon” is very much music-as-ritual. It’s raw, uncompromising and precisely targeted lyrically, with the artwork put together by regular band associate Mike Coles, the designer behind the very first KILLING JOKE album.
About the album title, Youth said, “It’s simple… Stark brutal industrial suicide… This is the third in a triptych of albums, ‘Absolute Dissent’, ‘MMXII’ and now ‘Pylon’… heavy and uncompromising, bleak dystopian lyrics, as well as some visionary celebration… lots of black pain emotion. To be honest, we remain genre blind so our music will always cover a vast spectrum of influences, from disco right through to heavy metal and beyond.”
While other bands of a certain vintage may struggle to hold their edge, KILLING JOKE are delivering the best and most relevant material of their career, with no mellowing or softening of the edges getting in the way. It’s a line in the sand against mainstream music and corporate existence.
“I believe we delivered 15 tracks for the new album,” ponders Youth, who actually raised that number to 16 with a last minute dub remix. “And it could have been a lot more.”
“This record really showcases the power of KILLING JOKE,” continues Jaz. “I remember we once jammed with German outfit CAN, and I don’t remember hearing CAN…”
Difficult, perverse and willfully unpredictable, KILLING JOKE continue to be a group that actually stands for something; Youth will tell you it’s “honesty, commitment and illumination,” and the others will doubtless have ideas of their own, but one thing’s for certain: what once seemed paranoid now seems downright prophetic, and for all of their adherence to darker hues, the future for KILLING JOKE seems bright… whether they like it our not.
All audio purchases of “Pylon” from [url “https://killingjoke.pmstores.co/”]PledgeMusic will receive the lead track “I Am the Virus” as an instant download.
The new album will be released in variety of formats, including deluxe double CD and a strictly limited double colored vinyl, with both versions featuring additional tracks.
The U.K. tour will be the start of an extensive period of touring that will see this most legendary and infamous band taking their own particular message to audiences around the world.
The single’s a good, powerful number, i really like it. Almost pre-ordered the album the other night (it’s a 2 disc) but realised i haven’t got much cash, so will probably order it at the end of the month.
Is it going to come out in the States eight months later again?
Yeah, that’s weird, i don’t get it. I picture KJ’s representation being so grass roots and “for the people” that their Press Office is one sleepy 80 year old English socialist who spends his days drinking tea and saying how much better it was in Stalin’s day.
Maybe they deliberately ignore the US market out of bitterness over Ronald Reagan or something equally nutty. As much as i love them, i do apply the Danzig law of “i believe in you 100% but i reserve the right to laugh my balls off at your total madness”. Jaz has said so many crazy things over the years, beginning with him moving to Iceland or whatever it was, to avoid the impending nuclear war, but he does have a real knack for homing in on the truth of certain things. I have a lot of respect for the man, he’s a genius, but i definitely do think he’s slightly “odd”.
[reply]Is it going to come out in the States eight months later again?
Yeah, that’s weird, i don’t get it. I picture KJ’s representation being so grass roots and “for the people” that their Press Office is one sleepy 80 year old English socialist who spends his days drinking tea and saying how much better it was in Stalin’s day.
Maybe they deliberately ignore the US market out of bitterness over Ronald Reagan or something equally nutty. As much as i love them, i do apply the Danzig law of “i believe in you 100% but i reserve the right to laugh my balls off at your total madness”. Jaz has said so many crazy things over the years, beginning with him moving to Iceland or whatever it was, to avoid the impending nuclear war, but he does have a real knack for homing in on the truth of certain things. I have a lot of respect for the man, he’s a genius, but i definitely do think he’s slightly “odd”.[/reply]
I was looking forward to hearing Jaz do spoken word at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, but he canceled, unsurprisingly. He is quite, uh, odd. I saw KJ at Irving Plaza some years ago and his arms didn’t really move the whole night, which is, you know, weird…
Oh, and that 80-year-old British socialist? He tried to beat me up in an L7 pit earlier this week, I think…
I like the new song, it reminds me of “Blood On Your Hands” from the '03 s/t LP. I always look forward to new KJ, I just hate that their past few albums are suffering from brickwalled mastering…but then no band is safe from that anymore.
Cripes, I think even Al backed down on the 9-11 truther shit eventually.
I’ve been to burned down cotton mills where the fire melted and twisted the steel beams. If a burning cotton mill can melt steel, an exploding airliner sure as hell can.
