Most bands grow softer with age, but Killing Joke clearly aren't one of them. "We must be the only group in the world who has done 12 to 13 recordings or more and there is not even one f*cking love song anywhere," declared frontman Jaz Coleman in a 2006 interview, with more than a little hint of pride.
One of the more politically controversial acts of the 1980s, they haven't lost their power to shock. When the band performed at Fuji Rock Festival two years ago, Coleman preceded their signature song, "Wardance," with a rambling and rather disturbing spiel about playwright Yukio Mishima, Hiroshima and the prospect of war with China — most of which, admittedly, went way over the heads of the majority of the audience.
Now approaching their 30th anniversary, they may never have enjoyed the critical stock of contemporaries such as Joy Division or The Cure, but Killing Joke's fusion of postpunk, heavy metal and dance music has proved influential in its own right. Industrial acts Nine Inch Nails and Ministry owe them a substantial debt, though their most famous fan was Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, who allegedly pilfered the main riff of 1984 single "Eighties" to provide the basis for his band's "Come as You Are."