Brighter Than a Thousand Suns by Killing Joke

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, Killing Joke's sixth studio album, came out on E.G. Records in November 1986, the first of their records to go out through Virgin. Chris Kimsey, who had recorded Night Time, was back behind the desk, and the band was the same four that had ridden "Love Like Blood" into the mainstream: Jaz Coleman on vocals and keyboards, Geordie Walker on guitar, Paul Raven on bass and Paul Ferguson on drums.

The sound leans toward gothic rock and new wave, glossy and atmospheric, but Walker's guitar still rings out like a siren and Coleman still sings like a prophet on a street corner. "Sanity" is the pick, dark and sweeping. It proved the end of an era, too: it was the last album with Raven and Ferguson for years.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.