XXV Gathering! [live]

The live set on XXV Gathering!, recorded in early 2005 at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire, celebrates Killing Joke's 25th anniversary and is duly ferocious. As expected, Jaz Coleman's banter from the stage isn't the customary "Are you ready to rock?" fare. His first words are, in fact, "We have so much work to do tonight," just prior to screaming, "Wardance!," which sets out an eruption of said song. The set list is heavy on the 1979-1985 releases, and the band fires away as an unrelenting, tight machine, bludgeoning the ears with a precise form of primal energy that delivers a quasi-greatest hits that includes "Pssyche," "Love Like Blood," "Requiem," "Are Your Receiving?," and "Sun Goes Down." Fans will appreciate the DVD of the performance even more, but this is a perfectly adequate portable companion. Alarmingly enough, the disc often sounds even more fierce and desperate than Ha!, recorded 23 years prior.