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It was the dawn of 1982, and for the visionary Jaz Coleman and the faithful Geordie, there were pressing matters knocking at the door that put everything else on the back burner. There was no more time to worry about emulating the underground success of their beginnings, or even just locking themselves in a basement to find the right hallucinations worthy of "What This For…". The Apocalypse, and with it the end of the world, were near; so said Jaz Coleman, a character from another time, a contemporary shaman forced to live in an era not his own, but ready to catalyze its symptoms of decay and foresee its possible outcomes, lucid in his apparent madness. Jaz chose Iceland, a wild and inhospitable land, but for this very reason primordial and unspoiled, as a refuge from which to observe humanity's destruction and lay the foundations for a new purified civilization. We will never know to what extent they believed in these drastic eventualities, but to rashly reduce it all to pure allegory, considering this messianic retreat as an expression of a simple desire for isolation, would mean never having read or heard anything about Jaz Coleman and Killing Joke. One thing is certain: what was almost entirely conceived in Iceland, under the influence of those hallucinatory ideas, is one of the darkest and most difficult albums in their entire repertoire. Lyrically, the various themes paint a singular scenario: the familiar metropolitan images we are used to are blurred and deformed. Once the cover of silence is lifted, here are landscapes no longer reassuring with immense buildings placed on a pedestal, while rows of clones march in line toward a buzzing sound, searching for the promised land, the Land of Milk and Honey; in this race, whoever strikes first will have more chances to prevail, but perhaps there's no more time, because above all the sentence has already been written. The sonic ingredients are practically the same as in previous works: acidic and distorted guitars as only Geordie can do, bass and drums united in a single tribal pulse, and vocals now filtered, now clear, but always on the brink of human. What distinguishes "Revelations", however, is the clearly perceptible will to make no compromises with anything or anyone. Musically, it evokes a granite block whose pieces are firmly set together and not easily separated and distinguished, at least not after many listens.
It starts with "The Hum", a splendid anthem manifesto of the Killing Joke-thought: a futuristic funeral march, punctuated by razor cuts, crawling aimlessly and dissolving into a swarm of industrial noises. Immediately following is the onslaught of "Empire Song", compact and tight, also one of the signature tracks of the early period. "We Have Joy" slightly slows the pace, but it should already be clear that there isn't much room for moments of catharsis on this album. The initial strums of "Chop Chop" are illusory, immediately overwhelmed by a cyber-industrial twist that pulls no punches. The frenetic rhythms continue with "The Pandys are coming", where the rhythm section builds something unimaginable until then, and the guitar slashes fit in perfectly, while Jaz chants psalms surrounded by monotonous and chant-like choruses: perhaps one of their craziest tracks ever, much loved by the die-hards and insufferable for the uninitiated. There is no time to catch your breath: "Chapter III" immediately sets things straight with a frenetic dance that will then be picked up, revised, and improved in the more successful "Song And Dance". A factory mechanism then launches "Have A Nice Day" into attack, dense and relentless, consistent in every way with the spirit of the album. "Land Of Milk And Honey" surprises, almost reaching hardcore, but with such an oblique slant that doubts about the authenticity of the source are immediately quashed. Even more surprising, and opening up debates of all sorts, is the sudden calm that descends in "Good Samaritan": a calm you wouldn't expect, after nearly half an hour of sonic walls and frantic rhythms. Now, in a rarefied atmosphere, marked only by weak guitar strums, we can see a hallucinated Jaz walking barefoot through the ruins of a devastated city, murmuring softly the miseries of a civilization that no longer knows who or what to believe in. Follow him, he is the Good Samaritan; listen to him, and he will show you the way to follow. Has the Apocalypse already come? Not yet, but the scum of the world that ignored the warning should prepare: The closure is entrusted to "Dregs", "dregs" indeed. One by one, the instruments take their commanding positions, then launch into a malicious maelstrom of distortions, tribalisms, and poisoned rants that is the worthy summation and seal of all the work.
At the end of "Revelations", one is dazed, if not downright shocked, as if they had indeed witnessed the Apocalypse, perhaps wrapped in the coils of a hurricane. But was it really the Apocalypse that Jaz feared and evoked among these sinister grooves? Though not lacking in numerous references to occultism, "Revelations" might stop before the apocalyptic celebration, and instead pose as a warning: that everyone should stop in time and become aware, even before the material destruction, of the moral one that rages in the streets and daily life. Perhaps, in this way, humanity could avoid catastrophe and lay the foundations for a new line of conduct. The "Revelations" might announce another advent, intended as the birth of something new… Look at the ribbon on the side of the cover: could it signify the arrival of a new civilization? Well, if so, it would surely raise to the sky a banner with the name "Killing Joke".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Hum (04:58)
Slowly, slowly all fall down
A blindfold dance and a 1,2,3
No mistake where they always emphasize security
Draw the curtains, shut the door, the heater's on
I couldn't ask for more
I pull the sheets right overhead
Snuggle, snuggle safe in bed
Take the wight right off my shoulder
Misery claims much too late
Bow the head or grip the sabre
Vermichten regenerate
Bright eyed young inherit all
treading down upon the fallen
They was drawn towards the Hum
Plenty more where they come from.
Slowly, slowly all fall down
A blindfold dance and a 1,2,3
Swarm upset the gentle lamb
A hive don't hold no humble bee!
Slowly, slowly, out it came,
Tendencies that weren't the same
And they were drawn towards the Hum
Plenty more where We come from.
02 Empire Song (03:19)
Back to square one, and the old school backfire
It's just begun, let's watch the blind eyes turning
Stains on the wall, been waiting far too long now
Nice day, blue sky, I watch them shrug their shoulders
Tighten the grip (getting tighter)
Now see the ball is rolling
We take delight, it's been a long wait for this moment.
Back to square one, another empire backfire
Back to square one, another empire backfire
SIgn of the time, blood pressure running high now
Nowhere to dance, which channel can you turn to?
We take delight, we watch them shrug their shoulders
Let's take delight, it's been a long wait for this moment.
Back to square one (now it's my turn)
Another Empire backfire
Back to square one (now it's your turn)
And the old school backfire...
03 We Have Joy (02:56)
Idle toying, worship the whore,
Forbidden was bidden,
kiss turned to gnaw
Indolent minds, broken rules
The grey land is falling,
Laugh at the fools
We have Joy - We have Joy!
We was drunk, intoxicate
No time for doubt, no time, no late
I saw the laughing one - this was the West
he said "take your spear and puncture the flesh"
We have Joy! - We have Joy!
We was drunk, intoxicate
No time for doubt, no time, no late
Brandish the weapon, Sound out the din
We feeling red now - time to move in
We have Joy - We have Joy!
04 Chop-Chop (04:19)
Take a walk to the new town, take a look around
Pretty road names pass us by, a foundation sound
They paint their walls and ceilings white to feel clean inside
Ten square miles so synchronized I could have cried
And the bodies go by barely half awake
Awaiting things to come again, nice things to come
It's such a nice environment I'm in
I wonder why I'm here and the bodies go by barely half awake.
All but the few ever notice anything at all, Oh dear
All but the few ever notice anything at all.
I've got a nice new wristwatch with a bright red strap
The second hand really moves quite fast - I'd never thought of that
And then I pick my picture book to compensate outside
It's back to fiction once again, I could have cried.
And the bodies go by barely half awake
Awaiting things to come again, nice things to come
It's such a nice environment I'm in
I wonder why I'm here and the bodies go by barely half awake.
All but the few ever notice anything at all, Oh dear
All but the few ever notice anything at all
05 The Pandys Are Coming (04:27)
There was a rhyme that wasn't a rhyme
In a time that wasn't a time
There was a place that wasn't a place
There was a race that wasn't a race
But I lived in a city no-one knew
Thousands of people, indecisions
Chained in by sorrow everyone
Started to wonder how it all begun
Waiting for leaders to lead them to pens
Queues went for miles and millions to come
Fall of because write us a few
Friend kept complaining and joined the queue!
Still was a place that wasn't a place
Still a race that wasn't a race
Had to find it, it wasn't 'round here
Such a thought - a simple idea
Long hall and benches, flesh on the spit
Music was playing, wine to drink
Women of scarlet, faces of flame
Laughter and argue, ever the same
06 Chapter III (03:13)
Attack behind attack
A war behind a war
Wise thoughts to broad horizons
A nation, the very least
Such simplicity, advance to find myself
He didn't see such simplicity
Hope is for the loser
Certainty to be
Pleasure of the winner
Certainty to be
Take now or stay the same!
Attack behind attack
A war behind a war
Wise thoughts to broad horizons
A nation, the very least
Such simplicity, advance to find myself
He didn't see such simplicity
Hope is for the loser
Certainty to be
Pleasure of the winner
Certainty to be
Take now or stay the same!
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