Peacock Feather
Killing Joke has always been a slightly neglected formation from among those that had a huge impact on the musical movement both in Britain, native to musicians, and in the North American continental part on the planet Earth. With their work of the early 80s, they made a local revolution in post-punk, showing the true power of this genre, and moreover with completely unexpected inclusions of early industrial and Jamaican dub. The roots of the monstrous sound of Killing Joke have sprouted in the music of such bands as Ministry, Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, Nirvana; even Metallica did a cover of The Wait from the imperishable debut album of 1980. In short, it is pointless to dispute the influence of Killing Joke on the industrial rock movement and its derivatives, their magnitude is too strong on the music scene, but at the same time it is often critically underestimated.
The musicians themselves, after the bright post-punk 80s, decide to take a course to weigh down the sound, hints of industrial heavy music have already slipped through in the releases of the 90s, and in the noughties with the reunion, the band finally started playing the same industrial metal, whose forefathers they were in fact once in the 80s. And despite the recursive borrowings from the work of the same Ministry, and Jaz Coleman has generally become a local Lemmy in terms of vocals, their music is unmistakably fixed as a Killing Joke.
"Hosannas From the Basements of Hell" is the quintessence of the sound of the band from the noughties. A non-stop dance mash of an hour long, which, due to the repetitivity of the genre, not everyone can withstand in one go, therefore, the best acquaintance with this album will be the first 2 compositions that capture attention from the first seconds with their frenzied energy and primal anger. The whole album will continue to create the impression that it was recorded in the darkest depths of Hell and was revealed to the common people for communion. As for the rest of the hosannas, the oriental and pompous Invocation is a great greeting to the legendary LZ Kashmir, Implosion makes you dance furiously as if in an epileptic fit, the songs following it only strengthen this feeling, and relative calm, catharsis await the listener only on the last composition, Gratitude.
A wonderful album in its expressiveness, form and content. Perhaps some people will be scared off by excessive duration, but when everything is well tailored and designed, will it bother you when listening? The answer to this question, it seems to me, is unambiguous.