This the band’s 15th studio album released back in 2015 and was recorded with their original line up. They have always flirted with heavy metal, and fused their post-punk vibe with metal quite successfully, creating their own position in music’s sonic landscape. They have that knack of interjecting a groove and pulse in their music that makes you want to bounce. I’m not sure these are the right words to use, but the album feels quite polished as the production is huge.
I’m a big fan of the band and I think this album sits high in the band’s catalogue. Jazz is his normal angry and controversial self, Geordie is the usual riff and groove driver of the band, and Youth and Big Paul lay down that pulse we all love. Autonomous Zone, Dawn Of The Hive (with a monster riff), and New Cold War occupy the first side and they are all killer tracks – right up there with the band’s best for me. New Jerusalem has a very simple evil guitar sound that any metal band would have been proud of. Carrying on that sound with Delete, this time with a very simple riff and driving groove this is Killing Joke of old.
Glad to see them still churning out the angst with all the groove. Long may they do so!
9/10 from The Grooveman.
