•
Rating: I discovered "The Killing Joke" thanks to the beautiful single "Love Like Blood" after reading some statements by Nirvana, it was love at first listen and then a continuous discovery immersed in their discography.
"Night Time" is the album of the big leap for Killing Joke: a fundamental band in the rock, post-punk scene from the eighties onwards. It is certainly the most accessible (and always original) work of their entire career as well as their greatest commercial success that best represents the new wave evolution undertaken by the group. It was the first time that Killing Joke achieved such vigorous mainstream success.
This is an album that clings to the mind thanks to dark and irresistible melodies, lustful guitar riffs that only Geordie Walker can create, accompanied by the magnetic voice of Jaz Coleman, Ferguson on drums, and the tried and tested Paul Raven on bass. Probably my favorite lineup despite the results of their electrifying 1980 debut. "Night Time" is an album that is never lackluster, always sounding fresh despite a marked sound that recalls that decade, never lower moments, an irresistible rhythm.
The tracks that compose it are eight powerful gems that weave through dark yet danceable atmospheres: "Night Time", "Tabazan", "Europe", the exquisite "Kings & Queens", "Darkness Before Dawn", "Multitudes", the quintessential dark ballad "Love Like Blood", and the finale with the excellent "Eighties" (a fierce attack on Margaret Thatcher's policies), as well as the mother of "Come As You Are". Listen to believe, in fact, it's no mystery that Nirvana, and many others, loved Killing Joke. Later, Dave Grohl ended up playing drums on their 2003 album.
"Night Time" was recorded in Berlin, at Hansa Ton Studios, between August and September 1984. Coleman stated: "Berlin is the place where you can observe perfect human insanity". The album was promoted with a world tour that for the first time also included Japan and Australia, in addition to the United States and Europe. The first self-titled album is rightly remembered as their landmark (with a bang) but "Night Time" also deserves equal attention because both, although different, represent two essential periods of the band's golden decade: the seminal post-punk explosion of the beginnings and the new wave phase before the subsequent episodes from the nineties to the present day. A recent release of the album has been noted, remastered and accompanied by b-sides, various versions of the tracks, and other unreleased material.
Seminal, unrepeatable.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Night Time (04:56)
Night time - turning out the sun
Countdown - pulsing like a machine
Conflict - cars and people, steel on flesh
Night time - desperations sweat on breath
Bloodstains - night covering the crimes
Daytime - shows the face behind the mask
Showtime - law and order life and death
Funtime - a drunken time where all can lie
Come, come with me, we'll run into the night
Come, come and see, sweet madness of night
Night time - party troops and governments
Clubtime - lovers riches promises
No time - running hiding crying tears
It's night time - and time to run from all your fears
Night time
02 Darkness Before Dawn (05:21)
The lore of elders passes judgement on this waste
And finding me or them does lack accepting fate
And as the moments pass another face arrives
We watch them come and go with speed of passing clouds
Forbidden fruits of dreams that rule our thoughts my love
Of lands untouched and ways to come always maybe
But choking on promises meant for the deal
Thinking again the darkest hour before the dawn
Confirming fears that from the dawn of time have been
Retracing footsteps in dark chambers of grey lands
And through the madness through the terror we must pass
As if awaiting sunlight that may never come
In time we face ourselves with all our faults and fears
Now that i know the final conflict is within
I recognise the faces of my friends and hear the call
"Come journey, journey with me through the darkest hour!"
03 Love Like Blood (06:51)
We must play our lives like soldiers in the field.
The life is short
I'm running faster all the time.
Strength and beauty destined to decay
so cut the rose in full bloom.
Till the fearless come and the act is done
A love like blood
a love like blood.
Till the fearless come and the act is done
A love like blood
a love like blood.
Everyday through all frustration and despair
Love and hate fight with burning hearts.
Till legends live and man is god again
And self-preservation rules the day no more.
We must dream of promised lands and fields
that's never fade in season
As we move towards no end
we leani to die.
Red tears are shed on grey.
Till the fearless come and the act is done
. . .
Till the fearless come and the act is done
. . .
05 Tabazan (04:37)
I've tried to understand the ways of men they taught me
They've lost their values as we define a wealth
Semen and blood is all i've got, investments of a future
I'm searching for a new gold yes i'm searching for a new gold
A voice is calling
Move closer to you - yeah
Virile young men run down the street in havoc singing
"I wish to build, i penetrate, i penetrate"
Restricted sexuality gives birth to worlds of terror
And all the time i'm trying to piece new schemes together - help me
Architects erect erections, monoliths are raised
I love the swollen mound i love the swollen mound
All hail the new seed breeding from our hearts and wombs
And night and day run round in circles following sex instinct
Push it between her legs and stretch the lips mother relieve me
Bodies entwined in human tangle at the point of climax
Shoot forth the new gold and at last reason makes perfect sense
I'm shooting, shooting forth
I'm shooting forth the new gold now - ha!
06 Multitudes (04:59)
The multitude excites, the flags are flown
By fireside the programme starts
And i am running through this madness
And all the time i can't relate
We sit around in rooms we talk our fears
Asking why we should go on
God i try to make ends meet the best i can
Playing rhythms out of time
Far from the multitudes a few will always stand
They don't fit in they don't belong - move on, move on this way
Within disorder i assume my role
Laugh and cry as i accept
Eternal indolence through ages
'til restless souls begin to wake
Perfection within decades of dissatisfaction and disillusion
A means to no end, a means to no end
07 Europe (04:37)
Take up your arms pick up your courage
A black sun is rising as the gods of europe sleep
Come back into your strength awaken
Catastrophes atrocities shall summon you my love
Glory glory how we wait in europe
What have they done, what are they doing?
The place i love so butchered ravaged scarred and raped
The years have passed us still we're fighting
'til once again somewhere green lands shall be in sight
Glory glory how we wait in europe
Glory glory how we watch in europe
The day humanity is over
Let nations east and west tremble at the sight
'til standard bearers' eyes are hungry
And reason dead forever - god let it be soon
08 Eighties (03:50)
Eighties - i'm living in the eighties
Eighties - i have to push, i have to struggle
Eighties - get out of my way, i'm not for sale no more
Eighties - let's kamikaze 'til we get there
And we sang
You do it this way
Eighties - by day we run by night we dance, we do
Eighties - i'm in love with the coming race
Eighties - i've got the best, i'll take all i can get
Eighties - i'm living for the eighties
Eighties - i'm living in the eighties - i push
Eighties - i'm living
Eighties - i'm living in the eighties - i struggle
Eighties - i'm living
Eighties - i'm living
Eighties - i'm living in the eighties
Eighties - i'm living in the eighties - i push
Eighties - push, push, struggle
Eighties - i'm living
Eighties - eighties - i'm living
Eighties - i'm living in the eighties - i push
Eighties - push, push, struggle
----------------------------------
(original lyrics)
Eighties - I'm living in the Eighties
Eighties - I have to push, I prostitute myself
Eighties - I saw the whole world getting anxious
Eighties - I saw the worlds begin to march
And we sang
In these Eighties
Eighties - I'm sitting on a table talking ideals
Eighties - I got the best, I'll take all I can get
Eighties - Here comes the savage day
Eighties - I saw the worlds begin to march
And we sang
In these Eighties
Eighties - I'm living in the Eighties - I push
Eighties - I saw the worlds begin to march
Eighties - I'm living in the Eighties - I struggle
Eighties - I saw the worlds begin to march
Eighties - I'm living in the Eighties - I push
Eighties - I saw the worlds begin to march
Eighties - I'm living in the Eighties - I struggle
Eighties - I saw the worlds begin to march
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By Fidia
"Night Time" is a work that cannot be divided or analyzed piece by piece distinctly. It must be treated and adored as a great work, like when one is dazzled in front of a Renaissance painting or a Gothic cathedral.
I don’t use the phone, I don’t watch television, I still write letters. I don’t belong to this twentieth century, in a certain way. Or maybe it is the century that still has to catch up with me.
By Algeone
Their records from forty years ago still sound contemporary and charming today, convincing us that their motto (Semper Imitatum Numquam Idem) was adopted without presumption.
'Night Time ... was the one that summed it up and made it accessible to a larger audience.'
