[kj] Killing Joke is not an Industrial band

[Alexander Smith]

I’m gong to try to revive discussions here, as most of the KJ groups on Facebook are public, and I don’t necessarily want to trouble my non-Kj-addicted friends with my Joke-related concerns (more than I already do). 

I’m sure we’ve addressed this at various points in the past, but why are Killing Joke ever cited as “industrial”?

Maybe sensibility-wise they have something in common, but when it comes to the signature trappings of all things Industrial — whether your definition of same stems from originators like Throbbing Gristle, Neubauten and Cabaret Voltaire or laughable latter-day dinks who wear space goggles and black fishnet stockings in your local shopping mall — Killing Joke have never really strayed from guitar/bass/drums/keyboards. No banging on metal or pile-drivers of clinky-clanky things at all.

I mean, there are assuredly elements of metal and punk (and, for that matter, traces of reggae and disco ) in the actual *sound* of the band, but I never had seen how they’ve been qualified as Industrial. Killing Joke are no more an industrial band than Public Image Ltd. are/were.

Of course, loads of industrial bands have ripped Killing Joke off (hello, Ministry, NIN et al.), but that doesn’t make the `Joke industrial.

At all.

No it doesn’t.

Weigh in, haters.

Alex in NYC