AMG Review of Inside Extremities, Mixes, Rehearsals & Live

David Jeffries
All Music Guide

With Inside Extremities, Mixes, Rehearsals & Live, Killing Joke fans get to experience a pleasure Beatles fans have known for years; that of listening to multiple takes, half-finished ideas, and everything else the tape caught. Featuring everything it probably could from the Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions sessions, disc one is a hardcore fans dream -- and inevitably, a letdown -- as it rolls through multiple takes of various tracks. Some are simple instrumental sketches, other feature far-off vocals, and there's even the occasional bit of studio banter, but you really need to know the original album like the back of your hand before any of this approaches interesting. Fortunately, there's a blistering live album from 1991 relegated to disc two (when it should be disc one). Consider it the meat of this release and you've got a decent peripheral entry in Killing Joke's already sprawling discog.