he original lineup of KILLING JOKE will release its new album, "2012", on April 2 via Spinefarm Records. The effort will be released in CD hardcopy and digital formats. It will also be made available on double colored gatefold vinyl.

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

"I can't see the point contemplating extreme life extinction — it's good for nothing. It's nihilism in the absolute even considering it," states KILLING JOKE mainman Jaz Coleman.

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," he says. "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," Coleman says. "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."

The 11 album tracks are an avalanche of sound that is empowering whilst jolting you awake. They are as fascinating as chatting with Coleman, as he talks of future humans living forever but with no emotions, and of the Age Of Aquarius and the cycles of time, the shift in the earth's electro-magnetic field, the end of extreme capitalism, the Arab Spring and how his trips to Cairo to record music have added to his belief that when Cairo falls everywhere else follows…

"2012" is possibly KILLING JOKE's best album ever, and fittingly Mike Coles, long-time KILLING JOKE collaborator and artistic genius, has completed the artwork.

To celebrate the album's release, KILLING JOKE is streaming the track "Rapture" as a taster on YouTube.

Les membres de KILLING JOKE n'ont actuellement plus aucune nouvelle de leur célèbre chanteur, Jaz Coleman. Ce dernier aurait disparu de la circulation suite à la diffusion la semaine dernière d'un communiqué, initialement attribué au chanteur, annonçant l'annulation de la tournée britannique avec THE CULT et THE MISSION (qui taclait même sévèrement le groupe THE CULT, en annonçant que "tous leurs morceaux craignent et qu'ils n'ont aucune intégrité"). Ce communiqué n'était pas de l'oeuvre de Coleman selon le groupe.

KILLING JOKE a pour l'instant annoncé avoir maintenu les dates prévues, et fait tout pour qu'elles aient lieu... et essaye toujours de localiser Coleman. Le communiqué du groupe est en détail de la news. (ZeSnake)