Killing Joke – “Blood On Your Hands”
Played By: Geordie Walker
For the ultimate in terrifying guitar
grandeur, one must enter the realm of the
transcendental tone titan. There is classical
and otherworldly beauty woven into the
maelstrom that is Geordie Walker’s wall of
living sound, but it is best described in a
few words by Jazz Coleman as “fire from
Heaven.” His battle-worn ‘50s ES-295 is a
huge, hollow-bodied vessel of chaos and
wonder that seems to channel celestial
forces straight to our planet. Geordie’s
sound mirrors the horrors of our world in
panoramic proportions, but through the
cracks of earthly fault-lines caused by the
great and wondrous apparitional sonic spirit
guides that offer glimpses of otherworldly
beauty. Because of this dichotomy, it was
hard to decide what the most terrifying riff
in the Killing Joke cannon could possibly be.
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TONE TALK //
Perhaps it was “The Hum” with its dissonant
anointment of intriguing menace, or maybe
“Intravenous” with its pitch-deviant, offkilter Eastern tsunami swing? No, it has to
be “Blood On Your Hands.” This is a blackblooded riff of pure unholy possession. The
riff is poisonously infectious and possessive
of the host that hears. It is the perfect vehicle
for venomous depictions of a world gone
wrong. Its relentlessness atonal repetition
and circular motion is the perfect analogy
for the human condition; the full swing of
inevitability; the serpent eating its tail. If
you dare go close to Geordie’s tonal realm,
a Keeley 30MS Automatic Double Tracker
and a tape delay will get you only so far.
After all . . . it is impossible to imitate the
inimitable.
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