Killing Joke - What's THIS For...?
#260
By MacArthur Antigua
June 1981
Killing Joke
What's This For...?
Genre: Early Industrial?, Post-Punk
Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5
MacArthur’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Highlighteds:
Tension
Follow The Leaders
Growing up in south suburban Chicago in the 80s meant that you knew about Wax Trax records and Ministry. Somewhere in a shoebox in my ol' bedroom closet are ticket stubs to see Front 242 at the Cabaret Metro back in the early 90s. Being the team captain of my mediocre high school tennis team (GO AMOS ALONZO STAGG CHARGERS) - that meant I got to run the jambox for practices, and that meant we were gonna hit hundreds of groundstrokes to the unrelenting beat of Nitzer Ebb's "That Total Age."
All this to say, is that when I got the assignment of listening to Killing Joke's,, "What's This For...", I was intrigued to have the opportunity to listen to a forerunner of the industrial rock genre. Comprised of 8 tracks, this follow-up to their self-titled debut shapes the playbook for this new musical flavor: searing guitar riffs, war drums, yawping vocals, and repetition, repetition, repetition. (Did I neglect to mention "repetition"?)
Even after a few listens, it was hard to separate them. However, "Tension" was a highlight with its "My Sharona" drum riff, hand claps and a careening guitar chop. This could've easily been on the cutting room floor of the final draft of ESPN's Jock Jams.
"Follow The Leaders" leads off side two of the album, (or at least I assume as it was track 5), and it holds off on the war drums for a few seconds, and allows more electronic beats to sear through the speakers. To continue the ESPN feed, this would've been perfect background music for "Match of the Day" footie highlights as it sounds laced with testosterone and warm lager.
If there's a miss, perhaps it's "Madness" as it clocks in at 7:53. This stuff works best in briefer bites, but perhaps at track 7 that was the time to take liberties. Despite that, it's a solid entry in the electronica/yawp-rock canon.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3rw5vGk8j0Kd72T3KkrVmD?si=xp0kLsGqTfuGJ4UigXmdHA
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