(From Foundations, "the industry's first and only hard music trade magazine", 1 August 1994.)

The Joke's On You

by Crimson 

Killing Joke as a band has influenced many bands of their decade and will continue to affect many bands to come. Their discography spans well over ten years, and in fifteen years of the band being together, they .have accomplished success once more with their latest release, aptly titled Pandemonium. Hedonism at full blast is the only way to describe the album with its passionate, primal delivery, replete with many inflections -from tribal to the mystic rhythms of the Middle East.

In speaking briefly to Killing Joke's vocalist Jaz Coleman, I discovered how they keep themselves so distinct against the multitude of bands they've influenced today.

"When we write, it's a very spontaneous thing. There's no thinking about it. This is the most anti-intellectual group in the world. I find beauty in motion and ugliness in analysis. We work on an intuitive, instinctive, primitive level in Killing Joke. I no longer try with my career, it takes me now. I do this for love and it's taken all of us now." What motivates the passionate fuel that propels Killing Joke? As a band they share a great lust for life that is mirrored in their rich music. Summing everything up with an ardent intensity, Jaz concludes, "You just wait until you start feeling the restless feeling, and you feel like a caged tiger in a relationship you don't like and in a place you don't want to be in. You start fantasizing about all these beautiful things and your life is so fucking inadequate -and it builds up. And what are you gonna fucking do about it?! You're gonna let go, that's what you're gonna do. When you throw a brick through the window and you smash up your relationship and you just step off the cliff onto this current and it carries you into a beautiful life, a good life. And you live to the fullest. You feel on the edge, but you're very much alive.  That's Killing Joke."

That's Pandemonium.