Band:	Killing Joke
Album:	XXV Gathering
Style:	Post-Punk, Industrial metal
Release date:	2004

01. Communion
02. Wardance
03. Song And Dance
04. Primitive
05. Total Invasion
06. Bloodsport
07. Requiem
08. Asteroid
09. The Wait
10. Pssyche
11. The Pandys Are Coming
12. Sun Goes Down
13. Are You Receiving?
14. Love Like Blood
15. Pandemonium

XXV Gathering is a live album documenting Killing Joke's performance to celebrate this extremely influential British band's 25th Anniversary. Although far from being one of the best live albums that I have heard, this disc does nevertheless do a pretty good job of capturing the spirit of a typical Killing Joke show, which, it must be noted, is quite significantly different from the traditional rock concert. The reverend Jaz Coleman and his cohorts treat their show as a congregation of sorts, a celebration of shared ideals and a kind of mystical ritual. This is made very clear here by the various rants that Coleman gets into between the songs. Some are entertaining, other intriguing and all add to the unique atmosphere of this release.

Over the years by far the most common criticism that I have heard of Killing Joke's live performances was that vocalist Jaz Coleman is unable to recreate his trademark New-Wave-meets-Grizzly-Bear singing style successfully on stage. Luckily, this is not a conclusion that we can come up with after listening to this particular live release since Coleman's singing is generally quite good here. His clean singing voice does sound slightly strained at times but he still manages to pull off the melody of "Love Like Blood" at the very end of the show. For much of the remainder of the show he roars his throat off and his delivery rarely lacks the appropriate power. The rest of the band is in similarly good form although their execution at times does seem a little sloppy, such as on the almost unlistenable "The Pandys Are Coming". They do make up for their small mistakes by delivering thundering performances of such classics as "The Wait", "Requiem", "Are You Receiving" and the particularly vicious "Pssyche", so all is forgiven. Actually, the small mistakes and imperfections in the sound quality add sincerity to the performance.

This record is not really mandatory listening to anyone who isn't a big Killing Joke fan already. It is; however, a very decent live album and it does contain some nicely updated versions of classic KJ tunes.