And who else but them, Killing Joke, the heralds of industrial rock, to guide us into the deepest and darkest depths? Who else but Jaz Coleman with his evil grin to drag us into the muddy infernal brothel of life? Who better than him to hold our hand in this abysmal descent into the underworld?
Because ‘Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell’ is nothing but this. A free fall into the bowels of the earth. A fast and inhuman ride, dark and terrifying. A ferrous wall against which to crash without protection.
The latest studio album of the English band, recorded and produced right in a basement of mysterious Prague, is dark, primordial, and takes your breath away from the first listen. Nine tracks of visceral intensity of pure madness that play to make us pale, smiling and muttering sneers behind walls of sounds with a violent impact.
The infernal dance begins with ‘This Tribal Antidote’ and Coleman's catacombal wheeze rises from the depths to capture our mind and body almost to convince us to follow him on this apocalyptic journey to desolate lands and unknown territories.. Yes, we are with you, Jaz. We follow you blindly towards ‘Hosannas..’ The road will not be easy. The rhythms become repetitive and obsessive, the ‘skins’ beat the time fast and claustrophobic. The calls multiply, the darkness follows us enveloping us, it is an invocation to let ourselves be dragged down deep. In ‘Invocation’ the guitars screech, the ‘strings’ accompany us and watch guardingly our passage through terrifying visions of all kinds of violence. At this point, the implosion. We are now in the vortex of the ‘ride’.. ‘Implosion’ pounding anthem of the new millennium. The guitars trace searing paths, the drum is possessed, uncontrollable, and Jaz Coleman is at the head roaring and sneering like in the subsequent intense ‘Majestic’ in which the first electronic elements of the work begin to make their way.
But the journey in the dark belly of the earth continues with ‘Walking With Gods’ and this time which deities among the piercing screams of the shaman Coleman will escort us indicating the direction? Which ‘Lightbringer’ will teach and bring to us the light, the brightness? At an obsessive, tight, percussively savage rhythm, we dance his tribal/industrial dance, forgetting everything else.. It is an inhuman, cathartic dance where the rhythmic patterns and the scratching guitars give no respite, know no peace. They obscure the view like a punch in the face. Not even with ‘Judas Goat’ will we have time to rest our limbs. The earth trembles, and Mr. Coleman's wheeze joins a rediscovered and inevitable drama in the face of life. The last stone of this mighty ‘titan’ that is Hosannas, ‘Gratitude’, will certainly not quell the grand assaults of Killing Joke, but its monumental epicness will awaken every thunderous and subtle fear of our self.. until complete awakening..
A nightmare, a heavy sleep, hell, a journey, a kidnapping. Perhaps not. Maybe it was just another 'joke that kills’.
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