•
Rating:
Four years, a good pause to sort out some ideas and then off we go again, another round, another ride, the story of Killing Joke is enriched with a new, thrilling chapter; with the stunning "Extremities, Dirt..." in 1990, Jaz Coleman, Geordie Walker, and company had made a forceful entry into the metal realm, with which they had nonetheless flirted more or less intensely since the dawn of their artistic journey. "Pandemonium" continues in many ways the discourse started by its predecessor, but in many others, it diverges, seeks new sounds and expressive styles, changes the game, and expresses itself in a different language.
In "Extremities..." what struck the most was the hardness, the rage, the explicit lyrics. "Pandemonium" instead gives more space to the shamanic and ritualistic side of Killing Joke: the lyrics are more nuanced, allusive, at times introspective and poetic, focused more on man and his instincts rather than the context surrounding him; as for the strictly musical aspect, Geordie Walker's guitar becomes even harder and more metallic than the previous chapter, but undoubtedly the rhythmic component dominates, an incessant groove, the groove of a long ritual dance in several acts, the rite of a post-industrial animist tribe, with bass, drums, and synthesizers instead of traditional drums and maracas, and the sorcerer Jaz Coleman intoning ancestral chants.
This is an album of rhythm that makes you move, makes you dance: songs like "Exorcism" and "Whiteout" flaunt monotone and repetitive structures, in a positive sense, hypnotic mantras interpreted by a more acidic Jaz than ever, who for a large part of the album showcases the most animalistic side of his voice, a deep and imperious howl. Exceptions to these style elements include episodes like "Pandemonium", an elegant, imaginative, and visionary track enriched by the presence of a violin that adds a Middle Eastern hue to Geordie's granitic riffs and the hypnotic bass of the returning Youth, the fascinating midtempo "Communion", also enriched by Arabesque percussion and orchestrations that give life to an ancient otherworldly ritual, an apparition, the evocation of a spiritual world, and the melancholic and desperate atmosphere of "Jana", where even Youth's bass becomes gentler and Jaz's voice softens to intone a sad chant in which the specter of AIDS emerges in all its malignancy, mowing down a young life like an insidious angel of death.
The predominant component of "Pandemonium" is, however, the rhythm, a rhythm that conquers, an epic and overwhelming rhythm that reveals itself in all its strength in a track like "Millennium", brilliant, compelling, anthemic, with an immediate and irresistible chorus that showcases all of Jaz Coleman's melodic abilities, which also emerge from the rock-tinged "Black Moon", with Martin Glover as the absolute protagonist. Worthy of note are the dramatic "Pleasures Of The Flesh", a hallucinatory journey into the most primal instinct of man, and finally the last dance, "Mathematics Of Chaos", characterized by a continuous, incessant, immutable beat that moves from within in an apocalyptic dancefloor atmosphere, a robotic trance that unfolds for over seven minutes.
"Pandemonium", the ninth album by the Killing Joke is nothing but a great confirmation, if ever there was a need to further confirm, after such a career, the qualities of eclecticism and genius of this group. "Extremities..." showed us the angriest and gloomiest Killing Joke, "Pandemonium", with uncommon inspiration, balance, and melodic sense, returns them to a more imaginative dimension. An eclectic, grandiose, refined, fascinating album, slightly inferior to its predecessor in terms of expressive vigor and urgency but still majestic, this is the adjective that best suits it, and so I conclude the second chapter of my brief retrospective on these unjustly forgotten Killing Joke.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Pandemonium (06:41)
She talks of supernatural aeons that we'll make
She says "look behind the wave of changes" feel the future taking shape
I can see tomorrow
I can see the world to come
I can see tomorrow
Hear the pandemonium
I ask her of her next of kin and loved ones in her care
She gestures all around her then she whispers "everywhere
"There is no nuclear family required any more
"My parents are the village and the village is the law"
I can see tomorrow
I can see the world to come
I can see tomorrow
Hear the pandemonium(x2)
She said "unlearn you must forget the values that you hold
"Life is not longevity and beauty is the only goal"
I can see tomorrow
I can see the world to come
I can see tomorrow
Hear the pandemonium(x2)
Cymbals that crash and pipes of pan awaken from your trance
There is no retribution here see how the heathen dance
I can see tomorrow
I can see the world to come
I can see tomorrow
Hear the pandemonium(x2)
--extra lyrics -- singles only
The prisoner sat motionless, his cell was six by four.
He walked to the horizon without walking through the door.
We found ourselves converging as we walked towards the sun.
Apart from all discussion, we were functioning as one.
I can see tomorrow
I can see the world to come
I can see tomorrow
Hear the pandemonium
02 Exorcism (07:27)
Rise from my unconscious let it rise
Get it out get it out get it out
Behind the illusion of reality
Are forces that speak to me
We will draw them out
We will cast them out
Drink wines that foam
Watch the ugliness rise
Watch it bubble to the surface
Let it out let it rise
All the hate all the hate
I saw you
You just wanted to take a razor and cut his face until it bled
You wanted to inflict
I saw the barbed hooks penetrate deep into the side of his flesh
Get it out
Let it rise
Let it rise let it bubble to the surface
Get it out
All desires that are undeclared
All resentments [their mockeries will show]
Bulging eyes the animal soul begins to rise
Let it out
Get it out
Let it rise - let the images rise
Let it rise - let it bubble to the surface
Get it out - get it out - get it out now
Let it rise to the surface - let it rise - let it rise - guilt
All your guilt and the pain and the hurt you cause
All the tears in the child's face
All resentment undeclared
Let it rise
Let it rise let it bubble to the surface
Clean it up - clean it up
Cover yourself with water
Wash it away, that's right, wash it away
Wash it all away, wash away the tears
03 Millennium (05:34)
I was born to see two thousand years
Of man's effect upon the planet
Extinction seems to be a plausible risk
Whatever happens well i'm part of all this
My life i've been waiting for this moment
All my life i've been waiting for this moment to come
Taste the salt of my tears
Take the wealth of my years
Singing in the millennium with you
[Resolutions for show]
Old ways don't seem to know
Singing in the millennium with you
Fire burn all our uncertainties
Water wash away impurities
Contradictions and predictions abound
Yes i believe that we can turn it around
My life i've been waiting for this moment
My life i've been waiting for this moment
All my life i've been waiting for this moment
All my life i've been waiting for this moment to come
04 Communion (06:56)
I see patterns in the wind and in the sand I see the stars, i read the clouds, i understand Then the madness overwhelmed (i lost control) It was cut out for each stain upon my soul All who died (and everything is alive) Communion I saw a man, i knew his face, he called my name And the house i'd never seen still looked the same Then i found all my possessions by the fire The physical world fell into place i had all i desired The mind begins to doubt what the heart already knows Reason gives into rhyme, mind begins to blow Reoccurring people numbers faces And i abandon all my need for explanation
05 Black Moon (05:19)
here in this vortex my true self begins to show
where phantoms pass me by what secrets do they hold?
flesh torn upon the wheels of human frailty
part of me was fascinated by the cruelty
running from the madness running from this mirror of how i feel
a dream is just a shadow of something that i found real
black moon bad sleep - another side of me
black moon bad dreams - another side of me
in the temples i am kneeling fearing god
in the cinemas they are baying for some blood
horror began to dawn as fear played its part
the fear that cancels out the love that's in our heart
all the hurt we felt repeated down the line
the pain inflicted was the pain that we designed
i try escaping from the person that i am
here is the endless cycle break it if you can
black moon bad dreams - another side of me
black moon bad sleep - another side of me
Loading comments slowly
