Brilliant and overlooked
Michael Richards | Berkeley, CA | 05/25/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Most KJ fans seem to dismiss this as one of their weakest recordings, yet as far as I'm concerned it is their best. You won't hear the poppy chorouses and predictable synth-backed bridges of their later albums here. It's powerful, disonant, disturbing and unrelenting, and it's unlike anything else recorded in the 80's. Recorded by Conny Planck (Neu, Devo, Kraftwerk) in Berlin, this album offers dark, textural, primal sounds with minimal arrangements that are much more raw and powerful than later KJ recordings."
Make the Effort - the Rewards are Great
Warren BONES | Sydney | 12/02/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is not an easy album to get into. When it was released I initially dissmissed it but now, 20 years on, it is close to my favourite KJ offering. It is, in a word, BRUTAL. It pummels you from go to whoah with grating guitars, relentless bass lines, a wall of percussion and screeching synths. Vocally it is much stronger than Jaz's early expression and the lyrics are as brutal as the music.Like other KILLING JOKE albums there is a similarity to all the songs on this CD but it is quite different to any other KJ record. High points are The Hum, Empire Song and Land of Milk and Honey but the rest of the tracks are all strong."
Tension
opinion8 | san francisco, ca United States | 08/05/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"this one sets the stage for fire dances by creating this enormous subdued tension - heavy, dissonant, less mainstream, more tribal than their previous work - but they hold it all in - a beautiful discomfort - then the release of fire dancesas far as i'm concerned, those are the only 2 that really matter
you could probably burn the rest of my record collection"