Killing Joke - Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell flac mp3 download

Been into Killing Joke for years (casual but no half-assed fan). Just played this for the first time on NYE 2018. Jesus Christ, total masterpiece. The production is the key, The Basements of Hell is very apt description.

totally love this album! For me it's also one of the best K.J. albums. Dark, Intense, Moving, Captivating!

This is one of the greatest albums of all time. I'm a massive killing joke fan and I really can't understand why this album gets such a hard time. It's intense, but it's a masterpiece.

Long time KJ fan since my simultaneous discovery in 1984 of S/T (Malicious Damage) 1980 and “Night Time” 1985.After having re-fuelled the proverbial fire, the Joke returned a few years after their second (2003) self-titled album with a series of new pieces, each more varied and stimulating than the next, with an album as hopefully and murky as its title suggests. In fact, Jaz, Geordie and Raven (and session drummer of contract - oh, Big Paul how we miss you!) apparently recorded this one in a dark, dirty, damp basement studio complete with old 70s era equipment, to give their songs an edgier, darker tone, something which is actually perfectly captured on the opener, "This Tribal Antidote", which sounds as muddled as expected, while propulsing the listener in the adequate direction for the remainder of the album.The title track follows in a lengthier, unedited version (as opposed to its trunkated videoclip version), which continues in the same vein: dark, edgy, heavy, with Jaz growling about not being a murderer yet, since after going down to the basements of hell, Killing Joke waits for him there. Maybe not some of his most inspired lyrical content, but highly effective in conjunction with the song. "Invocation" follows, a hypnotic/repetitve middle-eastern flavored one-chorded Geordie riff, based on a 6-step time measure. It is not unlike "Pandemonium" 's "Communion" in terms of tabla-flavors, complete with orchestral accompaniement. As the Gatherers are once again ganging up on me for not being a true Joke lover, the low-point of the record follows in the form of "Implosion"; a very strong KJ piece complete with all the elements one can expect, but oddly enough, doesn't seen to pick up any altitude or generate any depth. However, the band picks it up a notch with the tighly performed and elegantly produced (for "Hell", mind you) sludgy "Majestic", which much like this album, requires a few listens to properly appreciate."Walking With Gods", the closest to dancefloor friendly piece off "Hasannas", even though Geordie & Raven's chunk-a-chunk-chunk rhythms are far too heavy for the club hoppers, offers lyrics reminicent of the XO / Blackwater operations and the mercenery state of mind when invading other lands. Keeping up with the head banging spirit comes "The Lightbringer", essentially the same in terms of general recipe as "Walking" but with a faster tempo. "The Lightbringer" is by no means a throwaway piece, and is in fact one of the album's highlight. "Jesus Goat" almost seems to slow things down with it's deep and murky ambience, complete with a 5-step rhythmic pattern and an onimous keyboard proggression, but the chorus elevates this one above far above that of the final piece, "Gratitude", which is not just a lyrical mastery but also considered a fan favorite, but the other low-point off the album (and yes, the Gatherers are gathering yet again!). However "Gratitude" does have an intense bass-heavy singularity to it which seperates it from the rest of the album.The saddest element of "Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell" is that this was to be the final KJ contribution by Paul Vincent Raven who passed away much too soon a year later. "Hosannas" may be somewhat darker in tone than other Joke albums, a concept the band was aiming at, but it does not tone down the high-levelled energy and powerful performances from all the contributing band members. If at the first listen you aren't convinced, let multiple re-listenings reveal the deviantly delicious subtleties hidden from the first level, oozing forth from the lower basement.