Killing Joke "MMXII"

"Ah, what the hell" I thought when I spotted this on the new release board.  I was in a soft spot of the schedule and bought this for historical purposes.  Killing Joke originated after punk started dying out.  They mixed all sorts of musical styles into this thick, noisy, metal sludge which many credit as the beginnings of industrial rock.  They used controversial visuals for posters, album covers and in backdrops of concert performances, dabbled in the occult and predicted the Apocalypse.  Yep, that'll get you some press coverage.  What drew me to them was using Conny Plank as their producer.  Plank had been engineering or producing bands such as Scorpions, Jane, Can, Ultravox and early Eurythmics.  I listened, but I still didn't like.....until the sixth album, "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns."  The heaviness shifted to a dance-y goth sound, "darkwave" as some called it.  Long time fans hated it, I loved it.  More singing, too, not growling, puking noises.  The next album slipped deeper into synthesizers, away from the dominating guitars, and I figured that was the end of them. 

I moved to Florida in early '89 to open the Music 4 Less stores and only learned of KJ's continued existence from British tourists looking to buy new product.  The next time Americans probably took notice was when the band sued Nirvana for copyright infringement, alleging "Come As You Are" was ripped from one of their songs.  That probably led some to KJ's mid-nineties releases, though none charted to join "Brighter..." 

Earlier, I mentioned "...all sorts of musical styles."  Allow me to touch on that for a moment.  Besides the inclusion of various members in industrial supergroups such as Pigface, Murder Inc. and Damage Manual, original member Jaz Coleman was involved with those "Symphonic Music of..." CD's that all Sound Shop/Music 4 Less people remember.  He later worked with classical artists Nigel Kennedy and Vanessa-Mae.  KJ bassist, Youth, worked with lots of bands you all know, such as Erasure, Bananarama, Crowded House, Art of Noise, and the Verve.  This combined musical legacy is what led to purchasing "MMXII."

I had no idea they had been active this century.  This is their fourth release of the past ten years.  I was surprised that they were still creating new music thirty-some-odd years later.  I'll let an English reviewer speak for the album, one he says is right up there with the band's finest..."MMXII (2012) is a devastating slab of industrial rock loosely based around the Mayan concept whereby the twenty-first of December 2012 will signify the end of time. Intelligently researched and politically charged throughout, MMXII delivers a ten-part suckerpunch in brutal fashion".  Too brutal for my tastes anymore, except for two tracks in the middle of the release, one of which must be a single...



Singing, not retching.  Give me a complete record of this and I'll add it to the vault.  Here's a link to the other keeper track. 

The entire time listening to "MMXII" made me think of an employee I had at M4L #2036.  John H., this is right down your musical alleyway.