100 Unheralded Albums from 2010

Killing Joke: Absolute DissentKilling Joke: Absolute Dissent (Universal, 11/23/10)

Killing Joke: “In Excelsis”

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Over the past 30 years, England’s Killing Joke has helped shape the industrial-rock and post-punk landscapes. Absolute Dissent is the band’s first new album in four years, but remarkably, it’s Killing Joke’s first with its original lineup since 1982.

The album is another great mix of heavy riffs, synth-rock influences, and epic choruses – and more importantly, it’s more protest music, with themes about omnipresent surveillance, microchipped populations, shadowy international powerbrokers, and never-ending wars.  Like the band’s 2003 self-titled album, it’s another powerful return to form.

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