Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (album)

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns is the sixth studio album by English post-punk band Killing Joke, released in November 1986 by E.G. Records.

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
Studio album by Killing Joke
Released	November 1986
Recorded	October 1985; spring 1986 ("Victory"), August 1985 ("A Southern Sky")
Studio	Hansa Tonstudio, West Berlin, West Germany
Genre	Post-punk industrial rock gothic rock new wave[1]
Length	41:17 (original vinyl release)
Label	E.G.
Producer	Chris Kimsey Stewart Levine Chris Tsangarides
Killing Joke chronology
Night Time (1985) Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (1986) Outside the Gate (1988)
Singles from Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
"Adorations" Released: August 1986 "Sanity" Released: October 1986

Production

The majority of the album was recorded in Berlin during October 1985 with returning producer Chris Kimsey. The track "Victory" was recorded months later in Spring 1986, along with "Ecstasy" (the B-side to the Adorations single release), produced by Stewart Levine. The last track to be produced was "A Southern Sky" in August 1986, produced by Chris Tsangarides.

The album, with the exception of "A Southern Sky", was originally mixed by Chris Kimsey. However, E.G Records requested that all of Kimsey's mixes (bar "Twilight of the Mortal") be replaced with new mixes by Julian Mendelsohn for more commercial appeal, against the wishes of the band. It was these replacement mixes which were ultimately released, with prominent reverb and the guitars and rhythm section generally mixed lower. Some songs were significantly altered, such as extending "Victory" from its original 4 minutes to over 7 in the style of a 12" remix.[1]

The 1986 vinyl release contained only 8 tracks due to the limited runtime of LP records, while the cassette and CD versions both contained 11, each with a slightly different running order, as detailed below. The album reached number 54 in the UK Albums Chart.[2]

At the request of Killing Joke, Chris Kimsey's original mixes were restored when the album was reissued in 2008. The reissue also features bonus tracks, including the B-side "Ecstasy". The verse riff from "Ecstasy" was reused on the track "Obsession" from Killing Joke's next album, Outside the Gate.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
PopMatters	6/10[1]
Sounds	3/5[4]
MusicHound Rock	[5]

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns has received a mixed response from music critics. Ned Raggett of AllMusic retrospectively wrote, "Chris Kimsey's production, effective on that earlier album [1985's Night Time], here combines with Julian Mendelsohn's mixing to result too often in blanded-out album rock throwaways".[3] Adrien Begrand of PopMatters wrote in 2008, "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns marked a sharp decline in quality, many viewing it as a complete betrayal of Killing Joke's signature sound, but more than 20 years later, it's surprising how well parts of the album hold up [...] the hooks are undeniable." He goes on to note that the restored Kimsey mix on the 2008 re-issue "blows the old, overpolished mix out of the water." [1]

Track listing

Original vinyl version

All tracks are written by Killing Joke (Jaz Coleman, Geordie Walker, Paul Raven and Paul Ferguson).

Side A

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Adorations"	4:39
2.	"Sanity"	4:44
3.	"Chessboards"	5:47
4.	"Twilight of the Mortal"	4:12

Side B

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Love of the Masses"	4:54
2.	"A Southern Sky"	4:25
3.	"Wintergardens"	5:24
4.	"Rubicon"	7:06

Original cassette version

Side A

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Adorations"
2.	"Sanity"
3.	"Chessboards"
4.	"Goodbye to the Village"
5.	"Wintergardens"
6.	"Twilight of the Mortal"

Side B

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Love of the Masses"
2.	"A Southern Sky"
3.	"Victory"
4.	"Exile"
5.	"Rubicon"

Original CD version

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Adorations"	4:42
2.	"Sanity"	4:45
3.	"Chessboards"	5:51
4.	"Twilight of the Mortal"	4:15
5.	"Love of the Masses"	4:40
6.	"A Southern Sky"	4:39
7.	"Victory"	7:11
8.	"Wintergardens"	5:24
9.	"Rubicon"	7:03
10.	"Goodbye to the Village"	5:26
11.	"Exile"	6:38

2008 reissue bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
12.	"Ecstasy"	4:10
13.	"Adorations (Supernatural Mix)"	6:39
14.	"Sanity (Insane Mix)"	6:15

Personnel

Killing Joke

• Jaz Coleman – vocals, keyboards
• Kevin "Geordie" Walker – guitar
• Paul Raven – bass guitar
• Paul Ferguson – drums, vocals

Technical

• Chris Kimsey – production, mixing
• Thomas Stiehler – engineering
• Chris Tsangarides – production on "A Southern Sky"
• Bob Kraushaar – mixing on "A Southern Sky"
• Stewart Levine – production on "Victory"
• Glenn Skinner – engineering on "Victory"
• Julian Mendelsohn – remixing (original release only)
• Marion Schult - photography
• Cindy Palmano - photograph of Raven
• Stylorouge - sleeve design
• Alex Zander – crew
• Fil. E. - crew

Charts

Chart (1986)	Peak position
UK Albums Chart	54[2]
U.S. Billboard 200	194[6]

References

1. Begrand, Adrien (30 April 2008). "Fun & Games: Killing Joke in the Mid-'80s | PopMatters". PopMatters. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
2. "Killing Joke | Artist | Official Charts". Official Charts. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
3. Raggett, Ned. "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns – Killing Joke | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
4. Cook, Richard (15 November 1986). "Killing Joke: Brighter Than A Thousand Suns (EG)***". Sounds. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
5. Holtje, Steve (1999). "Killing Joke". In Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds.). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (loan required). Detroit: Visible Ink Press. pp. 629–630. ISBN 978-1-57859-061-2 – via the Internet Archive.
6. "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns – Killing Joke | Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 February 2015.

External links

• Brighter Than a Thousand Suns at Discogs (list of releases)