Wiki
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Release Date
February 1985
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Length
8 tracks
Night Time is the fifth studio album by English post-punk band Killing Joke. It was released in March 1985, through record label EG.
Marking the full return from the band's out-of-nowhere hiatus in 1982, Night Time finds the reconstituted Killing Joke, with Paul Raven in on bass but otherwise unchanged, caught between their earlier aggression and a calmer, more immediately accessible approach.
At this point the tension between the two sides had a perfect balance, and as a result Night Time is arguably the quartet's freshest album since its debut, with a warm, anthemic quality now supplementing the blasting, driving approach that made the band's name, as songs like "Kings and Queens" demonstrate. Geordie Walker pulls off some jaw-dropping solos amid his fierce riffs while Paul Ferguson mixes and matches electronic beats with his own very well. Jaz Coleman's experimentation with keyboards is paralleled by his own singing, now mostly free of the treatments and echoes familiar from earlier days. He's got a great singing voice as it stands, and it's a treat to hear him let it flow forth without forcing it.
"Eighties" turned out to be the retrospectively most well-known song.
Eighties Lawsuit
The song "Eighties" is claimed to have been copied by Nirvana for their 1991 song "Come as You Are", primarily because the riffs of both songs are so similar. A lawsuit, claimed by Kerrang!, was issued against Nirvana by Killing Joke for appropriation of the riff. Because no accusation was recorded, Kerrang! claimed that it was dropped shortly after Kurt Cobain's death in 1994. According to Rolling Stone, Killing Joke did not file a copyright infringement lawsuit, because of "personal and financial reasons". However, conflicting reports, such as Kerrang!, have stated differently.
A reassured interview with guitarist Geordie Walker in December of that year later proved that a lawsuit was issued after the manager of Nirvana responded rudely, saying "Boo, never heard of ya!".
In light of the events that occurred from 1992 to 1994, Dave Grohl took it upon himself to pay a sort of restitution for the appropriation by drumming on the 2003 album Killing Joke. Grohl is a long-time, vocal fan of Killing Joke, and has stated that he lobbied the band to be allowed to play on the album.
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