Revelations by Killing Joke

Revelations, Killing Joke's third studio album, came out in April 1982 on E.G. through Polydor, and it's the first time the band let somebody else take the controls. They went to Cologne to cut it with Conny Plank, and the German producer gives their tribal pound a colder, more cavernous room to echo in.

It's still the original four at full strength: Jaz Coleman barking and hectoring over his keyboards, Geordie Walker's guitar grinding like heavy machinery, Paul Ferguson's drums hammering out a war dance and Youth's bass underneath it all. "Empire Song" is the pick, all menace and momentum. It was also the end of that lineup for a long while: Youth left after its release, Paul Raven took over the bass, and the founding four didn't share an album again until Absolute Dissent in 2010.

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