KILLING JOKE will release their new album MMXII (2012) on April 2nd via Spinefarm Records/Universal. The album will be released in CD hardcopy and digital formats. It will also be released on double coloured gatefold vinyl. Check out the artwork below:

When their original line-up of Jaz Coleman, Geordie, Youth and Big Paul reconvened in 2008 after working together intermittently, that strange voodoo once again filled the room. Individually, they have a power, but together they have something sulphurous and strong that few bands can match. Killing Joke are not an average band with an average agenda; they lock the door and let the ritual commence, and MMXII is the result.

The album’s key is the end of times, an age of flux, a shift in consciousness…

Jaz Coleman comments: “I can’t see the point contemplating extreme life extinction – it’s good for nothing. It’s nihilism in the absolute even considering it.”

This kind of thinking sets the tone for this powerful record, with 2012 and the state of flux the key issue…

“It’s in many different calendars – the great unveiling, the sky and the earth coming together. It’s a significant date. In the autumn, there is a major planetary alignment, and on that day I’m doing this rock festival, ‘A Party At The End of The Earth’, which is going to be in New Zealand. Everything is speeding up. It’s not just our minds shrinking. We are heading towards the Eschaton and no-one really knows what’s going to happen.”

The album reflects this dark vision, but Jaz Coleman sees the great change in a more positive light – the dawning of the Age Of Aquarius…

“All the remote viewers I know, myself included, cannot penetrate beyond. This year is about getting our collective dreams in order, restoring the biosphere, the idea of well-being as opposed to economic growth, the idea of partnership and co-creation with fellow human beings, moving away from national boundaries and more towards what Schiller and Beethoven were saying in some of their work.”

The album’s themes are political, anti-capitalist and forward-looking…

“If we can concentrate on what it can be, the dream of clean streams, of re-forestation, of permaculture, of disengaging all the banks – identifying all the majority shareholders of the top 100 corporations and dismantling them. If we start dreaming of a fairer system and defining what an elite should be – an intellectual powerhouse and not international bankers.”

Jaz laughs that wild laugh and stares.

“This is what I’m touching on with the songs; ‘Fema Camp’ is about the concentration camps they have been building in America; ‘Corporate Elect’ needs no explanation; ‘Rapture’ is the way I perceive a Killing Joke concert – it’s a spiritual experience for myself to get into that state of grace… music is the theme of mantra. I’m not into organised religion at all, but I’ve always liked what Fela Kuti did in Nigeria, playing music like it was a temple. Maybe we will evolve into a time where we will be performing for ritualistic and spiritual reasons alone and not for monetary reasons?"

“There's a song called ‘On All Hallows Eve’, which is about my belief in ancestor worship, backed up by quantum theories that there is no death. You only ever remember the time-line that you are alive in – you can’t remember being dead because you never were. ‘Colony Collapse’ is about what’s happening, what’s going on out there. ‘Poleshift’ is the first track on the album and about the potential polar shift of the earth’s magnetic field, its erratic behaviour, and also the polar shift that will be needed.”

To celebrate the album’s release, Killing Joke are currently streaming the track ‘Rapture’ online. Check it out below:

2012’ formats and tracklisting

CD/Digital Album:

'Pole Shift'

'Fema Camp'

'Rapture'

'Colony Collapse'

'Corporate Elect'

'In Cythera'

'Primobile'

'Glitch'

'Trance'

'On All Hallow's Eve'

Double Coloured Gatefold Vinyl:

Side A:

'Pole Shift'

'Fema Camp'

Side B:

'Rapture'

'Colony Collapse'

The band will be heading out on an 11-date UK headline tour for March 2012. Tour dates can be found below:

March

4 – Exeter, UK - Lemon Grove
5 – Bristol, UK - O2 Academy
6 – Norwich, UK -Waterfront
8 - London, UK - Roundhouse
9 - Sheffield, UK - Corporation
10 – Manchester, UK - Academy 2
12 - Glasgow, Scotland - O2 ABC
13 – Newcastle, UK - O2 Academy
14 – Wolverhampton, UK - Wulfrun Hall
16 - Portsmouth, UK - Pyramid Centre
17 – Oxford, UK - O2 Academy