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I've had a lot of people ask me to do a
story on Killing Joke. Now, whenever I
do a story on a band for the very first
time, especially if they have a long
career, I always ask myself, where do I
start? Well, in today's video, we're
going to talk about the album that saw
most of the band's classic lineup
reassemble and return with what was one
of their best albums in ears. They
recorded part of the album in one of the
most mysterious places in the world. It
was chalk full of bribery, levitation,
and exorcisms. Let me know in the
comments section what other albums or
errors of Killing Joke you want me to
cover. Before we get started, be sure to
hit the bell notification icon and put
all notifications on. I hear from a lot
of my subscribers that they don't even
get notifications when I post my videos.
I would greatly appreciate if you guys
did that. In addition to, of course,
watching my videos and sharing my
content. Hailing from Nodding Hill,
London, Killing Joke carved out their
own lane in the late 70s and early 80s,
fusing the raw energy of punk with a
heavy dose of industrial menace and a
touch of dub along with music that was
steeped in mysticism. The band's
original lineup featured the enigmatic
frontman, Jazz Coleman, Jordy Walker on
guitar, Youth, also known as Martin
Glover on bass, and Paul Ferguson behind
the kit. From the get-go, Kill and Joke
weren't interested into fitting into one
box. Their 1980s self-titled debut
wasn't just another postpunk record. It
was a warning shot packed with tribal
rhythms and apocalyptic lyrics that made
you feel like the world could really end
at any second.
Killing Joke has long stood out as one
of the most distinctive and mysterious
bands in rock, forging their own path,
far from conventional norms and leaving
a profound mark on the music world.
Their history has been defined by
constant lineup changes as well as a
restless and wandering spirit as well as
a commitment to exploring diverse
interests outside of the band as well.
Despite these challenges, any one of
which could have ended a lesserk known
group, Killing Joke has thrived on the
fringes of the mainstream, building a
devoted cult following and exerting a
lasting influence on artists across
different genres, including groups like
Metallica, Helmet, Ministry, and 9-in
Nails. As the 80s progressed, Killing
Joke didn't just stick to one formula.
They kept pushing their boundaries.
Albums like What's This For? and
Revelations saw the band diving deeper
into uncharted sonic territory. By the
middle of the decade, they started
experimenting with a more approachable
sound, which paid off with the massive
success of the song Love Like Blood from
1985's Nighttime.
Despite their brush with mainstream
popularity, Jazz Coleman's lyrics
remained as apocalyptic as ever, and
Jordy Walker's guitar work stayed
instantly recognizable. But success came
with its own set of problems. The band
cycled through lineup changes and things
just simply got weird. Coleman and
Walker retreated to Iceland in the early
80s to escape what Coleman thought was
the impending nuclear Armageddon. Fast
forward to the '9s and the band found
themselves at a crossroads. Alternative
rock and grunge was taking over and a
lot of their peers were either calling
it quits or softening their sound. Not
killing joke though. Instead, they
doubled down on what made them unique.
Coleman told the record newspaper,
"Intellectually and creatively, we're
all very similar people and that can
lead to enormous tension." Basis youth
found that tension to be too much and he
left the band in 1982 going into
production work for pop and dance
artists and he became a highly
sought-after producer. Coleman,
meanwhile, also branched out of the band
getting into classical music working
with the Cairo and New Zealand
symphonies. In addition to studying
Arabic violin at Cairo University,
Coleman told a record newspaper, "Having
different musical outlets expands our
souls in different ways and having
freedom as individuals has helped the
band tremendously." Jordy, meanwhile,
split his time between Detroit and
Italy. However, the guitarist wasn't
impressed with some bands taking
influence from Killing Joke, citing
Dinosaur Jr.'s song Feel the Pain,
claiming that leader J Mascus had only
changed the last note on the song.
Youth, however, offered a different
take, adding, "It's a great validation
of our work. You're trying to move
people, and if you move them to the
point where they'd rip you off, you're
doing something right." Youth ended up
rejoining Killing Joke in 1992 when the
basist was working with Jordy on a
Killing Joke anthology. Youth was the
one who actually brought up the prospect
of rejoining the group. Aside from their
drummer being replaced by Jeff Dugmore,
this was the original lineup and it was
kind of a big deal. Although they had
their own share of issues as well. Youth
remarked to the Guardian about reforming
in the early '90s. It seemed like a bit
of a risky decision, not just to rejoin
the band I'd left a decade before, but
to sign them to my label, Butterfly, and
produce them, too. Youth added, "It
certainly didn't go smoothly. We're all
alpha male types who want our own way."
And one discussion ended with Jazz
Coleman hurling a whiskey bottle in my
head. What came next for the band was
their 1994 album Pandemonium. The record
didn't just mark a return, it was a
full-blown resurrection.
The album fused their signature
industrial assault with Middle Eastern
influences, all while sounding heavier
and more urgent than ever.
Some of the vocal tracks were recorded
inside the Great Pyramids of Giza
because, you know, of course it was.
Coleman was so enamored and focused on
making music that he went to some pretty
big extremes in the recording of the
album. He remarked how he severed all
ties with his family prior to the
recording process, admitting the
domestic life would have held me back.
I'm either scoring or conducting or I'm
with Killing Joke. It's seven days a
week and I had to clean out everything
else in my life to only have those two
aspects. Recording was split between
Coleman's studio in New Zealand, Youth
Studio in England, and at the time the
King's Chamber and the Great Pyramids of
Giza in Egypt. Coleman remarked in one
interview how he believed the pyramids
were constructed by a non-human
intelligence. But recording in the North
African country presented its own set of
challenges. It was Coleman's idea to
actually record in Egypt, having worked
there previously. But at the same time
being familiar with how things worked in
the country, he knew it was going to be
a difficult undertaking and even
admitted that he thought that recording
in the pyramids would likely just end up
being a pipe dream. Killing joke wanted
to record in Egypt for a few reasons.
Youth remarked how it was all about the
earth's energy and the fact that the
pyramids were positioned on the 32nd or
33rd degree latitude which is tied to
the earth's energy lay lines, adding the
St. Michael Lelay line, for example,
that runs through Glastonbury continues
on through the pyramid. I was attracted
by the esoteric occult significance of
the Great Pyramid. Being a pyramid, it
has interesting properties, its
proportions, and when it was first
built, it was all covered with marble.
It was through a friend of theirs, an
Egyptologist named Mary Lamondo, that
she arranged accommodations with a woman
who was also an Egyptologist, who also
happened to be running a yoga retreat
near the Sphinx. Coleman remarked,
"Kadijah was a very sexy Texan lady, an
ex-pan stewardist who had converted to
Islam. I couldn't imagine how she could
be an Egyptologist. In Egypt, you don't
wear skintight jeans and cowboy boots
and have your privates hanging out. Then
we went to sight with her. All these
Arab guys came swarming towards her." He
added that she knew how to handle
herself and soon sent the Arab men
fleeing. But Killing Joke weren't the
first people to record in the pyramids
as apparently producer, mixer, and
engineer Bob Clear Mountain had
previously done it. At least that's what
one source claimed. The Egyptian
government allowed people to pay for
private time inside the pyramids. There
were basically two rates. There was a
lower rate for private use like
meditation and then a higher rate for
commercial uses. Thanks to Londo, she
had contacts inside the Egyptian
government and set up a meeting between
the band and the Minister for Antiques.
Killing Jokes members lied about what
they were going to be doing in the
pyramids, telling the minister they
were, of course, going to be using it
for meditation purposes, and they got
the lower rate. The rate they ended up
paying to the minister was actually a
bribe in the amount of $3,000 in US
cash. This bribe gave the band 3 days of
recording time, and Coleman soon
recruited local musicians to add an
authentic flavor to their songs. The
band was forced to haul in a huge supply
of batteries inside the pyramids since
there were no outlets available, of
course. They soon realized though that
the pyramid seemed to sap the battery's
energy, cutting what should have been 7
hours of power down to just 10 minutes.
Youth recalled at one point that Coleman
became so overwhelmed that he collapsed
in tears on the floor when the sessions
weren't going his way. The basis
initially thought the reaction might
have been due to the brandy the front
man was drinking and just the overall
intensity of the experience. To help
Coleman recover, they decided to pause
the session and return to the hotel
early. Later, while reflecting on the
situation, youth realized the symbolic
importance of the number three in the
context of the pyramids. Inspired by
this, they decided that only three
people, including youth, jazz, and one
engineer, in addition to three women,
should be present in the chamber with
everyone else remaining in the Queen's
chamber during the recording. The band
concocted the idea of treating the
recording really like a ceremony. youth
described leading the ceremony while
wearing almost nothing except a thin
lungi around his waist, moving around
with burning sage bushes in his hands.
He had brought in an abundance of
flowers, garlands, incense, holy water,
and some naturally wandshaped quartz
crystals, which he believed can break
through negative energies. He used these
crystals to cast a protective circle,
and he felt like that also had a
significant impact on the ceremony and
also helped with a battery issue. It was
during the ceremony three of the female
Egyptologists came into the session
wearing traditional Egyptian ceremonial
costumes, taking the members and the
producer by surprise. Engineer
co-producer Greg Hunter told Louder
Sound, "Jazz stood behind the
sarcophagus and youth and I pointed the
quartz wands at Jazz while he was
singing and we kind of screamed at Jazz
and he screamed back. It was during
these sessions their engineer Sam was
falling asleep. Then he woke up and
suddenly ran out screaming." He recalled
the latter sound. These eyes, shiny
eyes, come to my dreams many times. From
this day, I never go to the pyramids.
Youth added, "At one moment, it looked
as if jazz was actually levitating
suspended in the air inside the chamber.
The atmosphere was incredible. The
acoustics were stunning and the
recording itself was extraordinary. When
the band headed outside, they found a
lively gathering of hundreds of Bedawins
who were burning fires, who were singing
and dancing in celebration. The session
was actually filmed by director Shawn
Pedigrew and featured in the Killing
Joke documentary, The Death and
Resurrection Show, which also detailed
the alleged paranormal experiences in
the pyramids. The three songs that were
recorded in Egypt included the vocal
tracks for the title track, the 7 and
1/2 minute Exorcism, and Millennium.
The title track and Black Moon and
Mathematics of Chaos deal with
humanity's fate and the constant
struggle of good versus evil. Coleman
remarked, "Humanity is faced with the
most profound choices. Do we destroy the
planet or find new ways? We're seeing
great enlightenment with terrible
atrocities. This is the time of the
Great Awakening.
Elsewhere, the album tackles AIDS,
cruelty, and poverty. Millennium and the
title track peaked at number 34 and 28
on the UK singles charts, while the
single Janna peaked at number 54.
Youth reflected on the band's
transformation up until this point,
recalling how Killing Jokes started as
punks. But punk was never about making
things simplistic or superficial. He
openly embraced his appreciation for
genres like disco and artists such as
Pink Floyd and the band incorporated
those influences alongside dub reggae.
By the time the band worked on
pandemonium, youth had further developed
his production skills and the band aimed
to blend all those styles and more,
including classic rock and industrial
elements. Youth believed that the
combination of their dramatic history
and creative conflicts was channeled
effectively, resulting in their most
commercially successful album to date.
The widespread recognition that eluded
the group for so long seemed to finally
be pointing in the band's direction.
Pandemonium was getting the band play on
college, alternative, and metal radio
stations with them playing some of the
biggest shows of their career. Coleman
told the record, "It seems like a good
atmosphere for us at the moment. We're
enjoying the biggest audiences and sales
of our career." That brings us to the
end of today's video, guys. Thanks for
watching and we'll see you again. Rock
True Story. sticker.
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