Absolute Dissent

A true comeback by Killing Joke

There is no hard data on how many old fans were lost and how many new fans were acquired by Killing Joke due to regular music style changes and image adjustments. The band released their first eponymous album in 1980. In those days the ensemble was following all the trends and played punk-rock, which was all the rage. Since then, the English outfit bothered to try many things, including gothic rock, hard rock, industrial and even metal. More often than non the members of Killing Joke, their acts and words attracted the public more than their actual music, but this is how the band managed to keep it going for nearly twenty years. In the mid nineties, after hard and vain efforts to improve their music making mechanism, the band collapsed finally, then seemingly for good. The first return by Killing Joke occurred in 2003 as the band, supported by the omnipresent Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), recorded another album called Killing Joke. Yet the true reunion became possible a few years layer when four members of the original lineup came back together. As if freshened by an elixir of eternal youth, they put tremendous efforts into their new album which, released in 2010 under the title Absolute Dissent, proved to be an exciting record.

Absolute Dissent bears the spirit of true rock

After the opening track, which hails, strikes and shocks you during six minutes, you can not resist a suspicion that the musicians left all they could in this song and the rest of the album is going to be slower, quieter and less fascinating. Not at all! The following piece, the menacing The Great Cull, walks the same path at the same pace. This one is a perfect example of a rock-music composition having nothing to do with commercial hits where nothing but a chorus is worth listening, Soon it turns out that Killing Joke have only warmed up by now, because they reach the peak of their intensity only on number five, This World Hell. The singer does such things that this song alone is enough to make every second visitor of a concert lose his voice. The dominant share of the set is done according to these patterns: solid riffs, even flawless drums, thick bass and awesome desperate singing. This is rock-n-roll with the spirit of punk-rock and heaviness of hard-rock. There are moments when the band feels free to turn aside and do something of experimental kind, which they always loved. Ghost Of Ladbroke, European Super State, and Fresh Fever From The Skies are songs that could have appeared on their albums of different periods. Once again it shows the changes of Killing Joke views.

Killing Joke retained all their strength

Все, чем могла похвастаться группа Killing Joke в свои лучшие годы, есть и на их новом диске Absolute Dissent opens up all the strongest sides Killing Joke have ever demonstrated. Vocalist Jaz Coleman, guitarist Geordie, bassist Youth and drummer Paul Fergusson got together in a studio to make another album for the first time in twenty seven years. After you are done with listening to it, you can not but regret that only now these people have managed to team up. How many nice records could Killing Joke have made? This ensemble must be a good example to those countless bands which are falling asleep lulled by their own monotony, dullness and humdrumness. Putting a few experimental pieces between pure rock numbers, these musicians have prepared a very consistent album leaving no space to boringness. Absolute Dissent turns into a relaxed and adventurous journey through the history of the band ignored unfairly by many music critics and observers. This is likely to be the ensemble’s best work in many years; but the musicians, in their turn, may hardly want to take a break and rest on laurels.