KILLING JOKE: What's this for LP.

Killing Joke have influenced many later bands, such as Nirvana, Ministry, Amen, Lamb of God, Nine Inch Nails, Porcupine Tree, Napalm Death, Amebix, Big Black, Opeth, Godflesh, Tool, Prong, Metallica, Primus, Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, Faith No More,The Banner, Blacklist, Shihad, Pitchshifter, Das Oath, Rammstein and Korn, all of whom have at some point cited some debt of gratitude to Killing Joke.

What's THIS For...! is the second studio album by Killing Joke. It was released in June 1981 on EG Music.

Label: E'G Records
Catalog#: EGMD 5.50
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country:UK

Side one
"The Fall of Because" – 5:12
"Tension" – 4:33
"Unspeakable" – 5:20
"Butcher" – 6:11

Side two
"Follow the Leaders" – 5:37
"Madness" – 7:43
"Who Told You How?" – 3:37
"Exit" – 3:42
All songs written by Killing Joke.

Jaz Coleman - vocals, synthesizer
Kevin "Geordie" Walker - guitar
Martin "Youth" Glover - bass guitar
Paul Ferguson - drums, vocals

What's THIS For...! showed that Killing Joke could maintain their frenetic, doom-wracked intensity while experimenting with their already strongly established style. Jaz Coleman's vocals go through even more treatments and tweaks than before, chorus shout-alongs swathed in deep echoes, hidden behind Geordie Walker's punishing riffs and the steroid-driven rhythm section. Big Paul Ferguson in particular lays down some absolutely skull-crushing drum slams and Youth is no less intense at most parts, and often they rather than Coleman or Geordie dictate the song, as the lengthy death-groove of "Madness" makes perfectly clear. Elsewhere Geordie shows a calmer (comparatively) side, soloing on songs like "Butcher" making common cause with the guitar work of Bernard Sumner in Joy Division days -- indeed, the song as a whole could almost be a tribute to that band, and one of the better ones at that. The playing around with supposed genre boundaries doesn't hurt either -- the beatbox/synth loop pulse of "Follow the Leaders," crossed with the more brusque blasts from the core band, suggests its eventual path in later years, while "Tension" lets the slithering funk heart of the band burst forth even more strongly. (The drums and opening riffs themselves almost sound like a parody of the Knack's "My Sharona.") "Unspeakable" is arguably the hidden highlight of the album, Coleman's heavily flanged, distorted singing sliding down a slowly descending chord pattern that suggests an early glam band gone martial and paranoid, Ferguson all over his set like four people at once. The debts of later bands toward Killing Joke are even clearer than ever, whether it's the fact a group named themselves after the opening track, "The Fall of Because," or that late-'80s Ministry so effectively cloned the whole style on songs like "Burning Inside."

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5.0 out of 5 stars high point,
one of the best albums ever written , period, a masterful sonic wall of noise, butcher is the ultimate climate change song,no tree hugging here,instead u have a song that spits bile at the psychotic self harm that is modern neo con capitalisml.there's a masterpiece

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5.0 out of 5 stars
The second, a refinement of the first, the Siamese twin bolted and then twisted, Dubbed with strangeness, this explores the DSM manual of madness. Replete with body shaking Moroder bass beats emblazened with boiling rage, the world quivers as the end is greeted with ironic cheers. Throughout the music the tension builds, throwing out the questions and expecting no replies.

The musical equivalent to the Indian throwing the sink through the wall in the Cuckoo's nest, the Joke enlarged the hole then bid all to follow the leader through a brief gap. Railing against the madness left behind, they ran into the colder climates.

The guitar rips the neck from the body on each thrash of the strings, the sounds of a guilotine. The drums batter the skins to a proto slimeval beat. The bass dredges the bottom of twilight worlds, whilst the vocals bang their head against a brick wall. Coated in blood and phlegm this was psychic unter exploration rather than punk rock charge. Incandescent with unformed rage

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5.0 out of 5 stars
This album broke the mould for me. It showed me what could happen with talent, anger and insight. It summed up the crazy time in the UK when it was released and I played it to death. None of it has dated, just more ominous and menacing.
A stupendous record.