Killing Joke – Extremities, Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions

The bass/drum interplay on this album is some of the most rewarding in all of Jokes discography. The heavy riffing on KaliYuga Struggle is similar to stuff Jesu would do years later.

Got this when it came out, caught the tour as well in NYC [new Ritz, former Studio 54 disco....] and have to say that I still consider it one of the most powerful albums I have ever heard by anyone.
Real good follow up by the band to Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, or even Outside The Gate.
I played this real loud for many many years, think it's about time to get those speakers really cranking again !!

MONEY IS NOT OUR GOD
Don’t think I ever heard such contempt in a song as when he sings: ‘Do you grovel to your master? Do you beg like a dog?’

AGE OF GREED
Good musically, but worst lyrics on the album as it propagates the lie that animal fat causes arterial blockage (yeah, there are too many fat people, but it’s not animal fat causing it, it’s trans fats).

THE BEAUTIFUL DEAD
About the vapid celebrity culture.

EXTREMITIES
Life as a non-conformist.

INTRAVENOUS
Incredibly menacing, about a man whose back is against the wall.

INSIDE THE TERMITE MOUND
Eerie portrait of Technocracy, this possibly inspired Ministry’s ‘Scarecrow’.

SOLITUDE
A beautiful song about something anyone with a soul needs from time to time - solitude.

NORTH OF THE BORDER
Intense, another ‘back to the wall’ song.

SLIPSTREAM
Perhaps the album’s greatest track, a meditation on time and timelessness.

STRUGGLE
Inspiring song about the ongoing life-long fight for what you believe in.

This is a great album and definitely a Killing Joke classic, with several great tunes on it, but I will never understand how it's supposed to having been pioneering the industrial metal style. You hardly find any electronics here, and, moreover, basic industrial metal classics such as Ministry's "The Land Of Rape And Honey" or "The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste", Nine Inch Nails' "Pretty Hate Machine" and The Young Gods' self-titled debut were already out at the time. I believe that Killing Joke's songs like "Bloodsport" or "Requiem", from their 1980 debut, were much more influential on the industrial metal genre than this album.

Long time KJ fan since my simultaneous discovery in 1984 of S/T (Malicious Damage) 1980 and “Night Time” 1985.

After the highly dissapointing "Outside The Gate" which saw KJ disbanding (of sorts), I had pretty much given up on one of the most influencial bands of the eighties I had the pleasure of being a fan of. But with their steady and continued more commercially viable direction they seemed to be taking, coupled with Big Paul being fired and Raven quitting the outfit, I had all but given up on KJ, thinking they had in fact dissapeared forever. It wasn't until I stumbled upon "Extremities" by accident at a downtown high-end record shop that I was inspired to try my luck at this "new" KJ CD, with Raven back in the bass (while Big Paul was now replaced by Martin Atkins). I still had my doubts after "BTATS" and "Gate" but if the cover art was any indication, coupled with song titles like "Money Is Not Our God", perhaps the KJ had returned to their pre-mid-80s furious fervor and energy.

I did not expect to be so surprised in a way which would shape all my subsequent KJ opinions upon first and following listenings of "new" material. In the age when post-aggro pseudo industrial bands were adopting a more guitar orientation, as Seattle and the grunge scene was setting itself in as the mainstream of the day, KJ had to be able to proove themselves yet again against the popular emergence of their own original inspirations. With "Extremities", KJ prooved they had nothing to proove and that when left to their own devices, could be as relevant in any timeline as well as be as loud, angry, and powerful as any other band born out of what the earlier KJ had laid out for them.

Starting out the LP with three absolutely extraordinary powerful pieces ("Money Is Not Our God", "Age Of Greed", and "The Beautiful Dead"), the remainder of the album only features a couple other supreme moments in the form of the heavy slow almost hypnotically mechanical-inspired "Inside the Termite Mound", the instrumental synth interlude "Kaliyuga" (the title which would be used for a later unrelated piece from the "In Excelsis" EP) and "Struggle", a somewhat representative finale for the album, which has also become a personal favorite of mine. As it is the case with their 1982 album "Revelations", Gatherers will call me a KJ poser when I claim that "Slipstream" is the weaker piece from "Extremeties", this piece often cited as the most KJ-esque off of the album.

"Extremeties" is a grand return to their earlier sound and fevered energy after having seemingly mellowed out to the point of self-parody with their late eighties corporate record executive-driven "Outside The Gate" which left KJ without their original drummer and co-founder, Big Paul. Highly recommended for those with an interest in the band, and hear them move into the grungy 90s without following the trend.