The Killing Joke

Jaz Coleman once dragged the band to Iceland because he was convinced the apocalypse was coming, leaving their label and the London scene wondering if they’d ever get a follow-up to Revelations. That kind of paranoid, ritualistic intensity is why their self-titled debut sounds like it was recorded in a bunker rather than a studio. Geordie Walker’s guitar tone was a happy accident of hollow-body resonance and industrial grit that nobody has successfully cloned since, mostly because nobody else is brave enough to play that loud through a Bell & Howell projector amp. They spent the mid-eighties trying to be pop stars and nearly ruined everything in the process. Chris Kimsey, the guy who engineered some of the Stones’ biggest hits, polished them up for Night Time, and while 'Love Like Blood' paid the bills, it started a drift into synth-heavy territory that felt like they were chasing the New Romantic ghost. It took a decade of infighting and the sheer force of the industrial metal explosion they helped ignite for them to find their teeth again. When they finally returned to the heavy shit, they didn't just join the fray—they showed everyone that their brand of nihilism was the original blueprint.

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