Title aside, Killing Joke’s 11th album (and first since 1996’s Democracy) has much in common with their eponymous 1980 debut. Impending damnation, tribal rhythms and riffs like avalanches of white-hot granite?this is classic Killing Joke. Take “Asteroid” and “Implant”, the same kind of divine melodic carnage patented on 1981’s quintessential What’s THIS For…! The jaw-dropper, though, is “You’ll Never Get To Me”?an unexpectedly tender and blissfully tuneful proclamation of the lava-lunged Jaz Coleman’s raison d’etre?”survival is my victory”. A triumph indeed.
Advertisement