“Love Like Blood” by Killing Joke

"Love Like Blood" arrived in 1985 as the second single from Night Time, and it's the sound of Killing Joke dragging their gothic rock onto the dance floor. Geordie Walker called it "disco with distorted guitar", and that's about the size of it: Paul Ferguson and Paul Raven lock into a relentless, marching pulse, Walker's guitar pours down like cold rain, and Jaz Coleman, doubling on keyboards, sings with the grave conviction of a man reading out a prophecy. Chris Kimsey produced, and the polish never dulls the menace.

It went top 10 in the Netherlands, Belgium and New Zealand and reached number 16 in Britain, and the Low Countries have never let go: it has made the Dutch Top 2000 every year since 2011, and it remains a fixture at Belgium's new wave and goth nights.

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