Audio CD review:
Killing Joke - Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell

Killing Joke - Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell

Band: Killing Joke Title: Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell Rating: Release Date: 16 July, 2007 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: This Tribal Antodote 2: Hosannas From the Basements of Hell 3: Invocation 4: Implosion 5: Majestic 6: Walking With Gods 7: The Lightringer 8: Judas Goat 9: Gratitude

Customer Reviews In need of an outside producer. If nothing else, it sets the bar for expectations so high that it's simply hard to reach them. One of the hardest things for a band to do is live up to a great record-- the fabled sophomore slump doesn't just apply to a band's debut and its followup, but really any great effort. Killing Joke has had the fortune of having been through this several times-- "what's THIS for. . . !" after their self-titled debut (and for that matter, "Revelations" after "what's THIS for. . . !"), "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" after "Night Time", "Democracy" after "Pandemonium". . . in all these cases, the albums were ok, and they certainly had their moments, but invariably they were lacking something their predecessor had. In this regard, "Hosannas from the Basement of Hell" is really no exception. 2003's "Killing Joke" was the comeback record you wanted to hear-- a slab of white-hot, political, and somewhat doom-laden post-punk. It's widely regarded amongst the fan community as one of the band's greats. So 'Hosannas'. It's not a bad album, it's just not great. To begin with, it's production. I read they were going for a raw sound-- this is one of those things I fear-- it seems to me it always creates a sludge in the music (and in this case obscures the vocals nicely-- "Implosion" is a good example). Net result-- these songs might be better than they come off, but it's tough to tell because the recording doesn't have that clean feel that the great Killing Joke records have. No doubt this comes from self-producing (Gang of Four's Andy Gill worked miracles on the 2003 album), another side-effect of which can be poor self-editing. The album is just over an hour long and has 9 songs-- about 7 minutes a song, with a couple stretching significantly longer. With a band like Killing Joke that will ride a riff until the end of time, this can have the tendency of causing a lack of interest ("Walking with Gods"). I realize this is a pretty harsh criticism I've offered, and maybe it's not fair-- I am viewing the album in context of its predecessor and it's not all bad-- "The Tribal Antidote", while albeit a bit straighter than I prefer my Killing Joke, a great, catchy piece, "Invocation" benefits from a very "Pandemonium"-like arrangement, and while the title track is a bit tacky lyrically, it's got a good enough sound to it. But the album drags, and I lose interest halfway through-- all the songs I like are at the beginning and there's just nothing to save nearly ten minutes of "The Lightbringer". In the end, this is an album only a fan could love. If you're new to the band, try out either of their self-titled albums, if you've been listening for a while, you may love this. Some folks do. I'm just not one of them. Maybe with an outside voice to provide some much needed editing this would work better, but by and large, "Hosannas from the Basement of Hell" is just not a record that gets much play from me. absolutely perfectly miserable these guys never seem to get old. this album is brilliant. the energy and darkness never wane - their sound always evolving. any KJ fan will not be disappointed. . This is what should have been released instead of "Democracy" I did not hate their 2003 self-titled release anywhere near as much as most people seem to, but I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I wasn't glad to see them switch gears and get back to coaxing these painful noises out of their fairly conventional instruments. Although the title is ridiculously cheesy, this album sounds like the next logical progression from 1994's "Pandaemonium", and my only real complaint about it is that it took 12 years to get here. It's a rare thing to find a British rock band devoid of blues and Beatles influences, so I'm grateful this one seems to be surviving. Not that I hate the blues or anything, it's just nice to see somebody do something differently every 60 years or so. The Beatles, yes; I do hate them. . You can see a complete list of all Killing Joke discography, or go back to the Killing Joke tabs