- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Killing Joke are not exactly a punk rock band, and they are not exactly a hard rock band or a heavy metal band either. Killing Joke is the band’s first album.
Killing Joke – Killing Joke (1980): Killing Joke are not exactly a punk rock band, and they are not exactly a hard rock band or a heavy metal band either. Remarkably, a lot of their music is danceable, and they even picked up an arty side later in their career. I first learned about Killing Joke in the video for their song “Eighties” (1984) that I saw on the MTV weekend alternative rock program, 120 Minutes (the show started at midnight, so typically, I would hit ‘Record’ on my VCR before going to bed and then watch 120 Minutes later in the week). Killing Joke is the band’s first album; the Allmusic review by Bradley Torreano starts off: “Since 1980, there have been a hundred bands who sound like this; but before [record producers] Steve Albini and Al Jourgensen made it hip, the cold metallic throb of Killing Joke was exciting and fresh.”
The album includes Killing Joke’s first single, “Wardance”; “The Wait” was covered by Metallica just six years later, and Foo Fighters released “Requiem” as a B-side in 1997. The bandleader of Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl was previously the drummer for Nirvana. Killing Joke and Nirvana had a running feud for many years that nearly resulted in a lawsuit, regarding how similar the guitar line in “Eighties” was to that of the Nirvana single “Come as You Are” that was on their breakthrough album, Nevermind (1991).