killing joke in excelsis

Released: 21 June 2010 Label: Spinefarm

This EP cd, also released on 10” coloured vinyl (how do you get that in the cd player daddy?) marks the first time that the original line up of Killing Joke have gotten together since 1982. Their trademark heavy metal sound with strident, savage vocals and bleak subjects is largely untouched, and perhaps reflect the difficulties in society as a result of economic downturns.

The EP opens with a high energy, powerful guitar riff that lasts for about five minutes, and gives only a little hint of the bleakness and desolation to come.

Tracks two and three have a steady rock rhythm, again with Jaz Coleman's powerful vocals balancing Geordie Walkers wall of guitar.

Energy levels drop a little through the album with the final track recalling the gloom and mood perpetrated by The Specials ‘Ghost Town’ from 1981.

The two versions of Ghost of Ladbroke Grove have more of a ska influence, which is significantly different from the other tracks, but no less powerful for that

This is Killing Joke, brutal post punk, progressive, apolitical, varied and thirty years on.

by Alan Thomson