Killing Joke - Killing Joke

Despite the ostensible nastiness of punk and post-punk acts, there were only three bands I found genuinely unsettling. Those were the Stranglers, the Birthday Party - and Jaz Coleman (who, I recently discovered, was later described as "the new Mahler" by conductor Klaus Tennstedt) and his unmerry men. Listening to this nearly 30 years after it was first released, I found it rather disappointing. Worse, bits of it made me laugh, for example the distorted vocals on "Wardance", which sound like a baddie out of "Doctor Who". It's not all bad - "Requiem" is a genuine classic, and "The Wait" is quite good - but it's nowhere near as good as it is cracked up to be. Most revealing, perhaps, is "Primitive" - wonderful, crunching, syncopated bass, then a majestic guitar riff, then - rubbish vocals and lyrics. Maybe I just don't scare as easily these days. It's a shame that the reissue didn't include "Psyche": that really was terrifying.