Killing Joke
MMXII

The advent of the apocalypse, the end of the world, must be some sort of fixation for the good Jaz Coleman, voice of the ultra-seasoned Killing Joke.

Yes, because if he already retreated to the distant and cold Iceland back in 1982 to escape what he claimed was the imminent end of the world, in the present 2012 he decides, in complete ideological harmony with the remaining band members, to dedicate their latest album - the fifteenth if I'm not mistaken - to this topic, which is especially in vogue in the year that is about to end.

MMXII (2012 in Roman numerals), in fact, is nothing but a collection of songs all centered around the supposed final stop towards which the earthly sphere we inhabit - and sometimes infest - is heading: so on one hand, we find environmental themes connected to the (perhaps) possible and feared shift of the earth's poles ("Pole Shift"), on the other, there's talk of alleged concentration camps built on U.S. soil by the government itself to intern any dissident factions of society ("Fema Camp"), passing through the theme of the possible collapse that the raw material procurement system of more advanced states in the third world might face ("Colony Collapse").

But let's get to the music, since that's what interests me the most.

The music, indeed: what could a group like Killing Joke, active since the early '80s, who has taken the liberty to explore various musical genres, starting from the post-punk with electronic influences of the early days, displaying a new age inclination in the latter half of the roaring Reagan years (which also earned them notable appearances in the charts), landing in the '90s with a harder - almost metal - sound confirmed even after the reunion in the 2000s, still have to say?

Given these premises, one would be inclined to answer nothing, or very little, but that's not the case with Killing Joke and this album in particular.

In fact, according to the undersigned, MMXII can be considered a sort of summa of what has been proposed by the band over the previous decades, but a synthesis of remarkable quality, not a bland reproduction of what was the glorious past as unfortunately often happens.

What struck me then is the freshness of the entire product, the fact that it flows easily throughout its duration (50 minutes aren't exactly few), a characteristic that, in my humble opinion, was lacking in their previous works and is fully captured in this latest studio effort.

The beginning is nebulous, the times are ethereal but well-paced, until "Pole Shift" suddenly takes shape and Walker’s sharp riffing and Coleman’s hoarse voice - just moments before welcoming in its spookiness - throw us into a swirling vortex that's hard to escape until the end of the nearly 9-minute-long song.

An explosive opening, in short, perhaps the best track on the album, which encapsulates all the immense potential of Killing Joke after about 30 years of career.

What follows nevertheless maintains the same high-quality standards: the martial "Fema Camp" is a testament to Coleman’s interpretative skills, while with "Rapture", "Glitch", and "Trance" they push the accelerator and electronics become an accomplice to the almost Rammsteinian arrangements (as it was the Killing Joke themselves who have inspired them several times) in drawing precise and targeted sword attacks, supported by the robust rhythmic section orchestrated by faithful Ferguson.

Not satisfied, the musicians present here also offer us a brief trip back in time to the years when contamination with new wave sounds characterized their music, inserting in the tracklist two tracks in series with a very '80s taste, certainly catchy but absolutely of quality: "In Cytheria" (launch single among other things) and "Primobile".

A particular and personal mention for "Colony Collapse": heavy riffing, pulsating and dynamic bass (listen to the end of the track to believe), evocative voice. My favorite.

In conclusion, highly recommended listening, not only for those who are already fans of this immense - and sometimes underrated - band, but also for those who have never bothered to listen to them.

Rating: 7.5.

Final curiosity: around the end of July this year, Coleman disappeared again from circulation only to be found a few weeks later in the Sahara desert... was he looking for a place different from cold Iceland to await the end of the world?