Killing Joke
Fire Dances

THE REVIEW

In 1983, just a step away from the greatest commercial success that would come with the following "Night Time," the Killing Joke embarked on a new marked sonic direction with their fourth album "Fire Dances" and a lineup that included young bassist Paul Raven replacing Youth.

The chemistry remained intact, albeit different, and is evidently noticeable. "Fire Dances" steers towards a sound more accessible to the masses, but the band does not betray its roots, continuing to unleash a series of vigorous tracks boasting a real rhythmic triumph on the drums with Paul Ferguson, sparkling guitar sounds of pure post-punk, a well-blended bass, and the indispensable voice of Coleman, funky sounds tinged with obsessive melodies.

The sounds are warm and enveloping, many of the tracks would have been at ease in the major alternative charts worldwide. These songs combine a youthful innocence mixed with a magnetic brutality. The album opens with the powerful "The Gathering", followed by the solid "Fun and Games," "Rejuvination," "Frenzy", and "Harlequin" up to more mellow moments in "Dominator", before stepping on the accelerator again with the hit single "Let's All Go (to the Fire Dances)" for which a well-known video was made.

This work, like others (including the self-titled 1980, "Night Time," and "Extremities Dirt & Various"), was recently remastered complete with bonus tracks that remained in the shadows over the years and live versions including the John Peel Sessions, which are not easily accessible. One of the tracks deserves a special mention, namely the brilliant"Me or You?", a track that continues the discourse of the original album but in a more restrained way, finds its emotional strength mainly thanks to Jaz Coleman's engaging voice. It's a pity it was not included at the beginning in the original LP and that it didn't receive the proper attention with a video clip, despite being initially released as a separate single (not included in any official album) and then as a b-side of "Feast of Blaze".

Surely "Fire Dances" at the time divided Killing Joke fans, but regardless of the sonic turn that would progress later, it remains a truly inspired work, to be re-evaluated. Certainly, if it were released today under the name of any neo band, it would have been greeted with immense enthusiasm by critics and the most renowned specialized magazines.