[kj] London Evening Standard review

[nicholas fitzpatrick]

Apparently KJ did a gig in Shepherds Bush recently. Anyway, the Evening 
Standard reviewed it.


>>>>Copyright 2005 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
The Evening Standard (London)

HEADLINE: Anthems for the Armageddon

BYLINE: JOHN AIZLEWOOD

WHEN Killing Joke surfaced 26 years ago, it was far from clear whether they 
were yobs masquerading as intelligentsia or vice versa. Crystal clear was 
their simmering menace, underpinned by stomach-quaking bass, inhuman drums, 
but most of all Jaz Coleman's lyrical celebration of what he saw as 
impending Armageddon, all delivered in a strained voice which made him the 
hoarse man of the apocalypse.

2003's supremely focused, self-titled album was a heroic vindication of 
their refusal to go gentle into that good night.

Somehow predictably, the new album is apparently being recorded in the 
world's war zones.

The menace of yore remained intact, even after Coleman emerged carrying a 
giant cross, wearing a baggy jumpsuit, a clerical collar and with his face 
covered painted devilish red.

Latest drummer Ben Calvert proved as extraordinary as his predecessors, so 
musically they cooked up an unholy storm, but the evening belonged to 
Coleman: part shaman, part berk, wholly compelling. They omitted their 
biggest hit Love Like Blood, but thundered through Are You Receiving? and 
the nearly new Total Invasion, which raised the not wholly fanciful notion 
that access to water will be the next international flashpoint.

Asteroid was the most intense moment of an intense evening, while War Dance 
and The Pandys Are Coming caused pandemonium among the elderly moshers.

After 90 exhausting minutes, Coleman departed with the prediction that the 
next four years will be "very strange for us all". Yobs or intelligentsia? I 
still don't know.