Godflesh - Post Self

Wellity wellity wellity, this just fucking came out of nowhere didn't it? There is always room in the world for more Godflesh so thank the heavens that Justin & Mr. Green have decided to bleed more of that sweet, sweet crushing goodness out into the world. Post Self might be one of the best Godflesh records ever. That is a sweepingly bold statement I know, but the band have expanded on their previous release with all of the experimental freakery that made them so brilliant in the first place. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the brutal simplicity of A World Lit Only By Fire, but what Post Self lacks in hammering riffs it makes up for tenfold in crushing atmosphere. Plus, the fucking hip hop beats are back, fam - 10/10! This type of thing was hinted at with "Dogbite", but then scaled back for the previous album itself. 

"Post Self", "Parasite", and "Mortality Sorrow" are three examples of how fucking stunning hip hop and break-style beats can sound in Godflesh's music, whilst songs like "Be God" and even more so "Pre Self" are something altogether more 80s Swans than Godflesh has ever attained to, even in their primitive beginnings. 

All in all, Post Self sounds everything like Godflesh but also sounds nothing like anything Godflesh have done before. A phenomenal progression, and a glistening, holy yet unholy, head-noddingly good step in the right direction. Knocked it out of the fucking park! A contender for one of my favourite releases this year, without a doubt. 

Godflesh - Hymns

Hymns was the final album by Godflesh before they originally broke up in 2002. It seems to apply the no-nonsense aesthetic from records such as Pure and Slavestate to the band's later, more "nu metal" kinda sound as found on Songs Of Love And Hate and even parts of Us & Them. What's also quite nice to note is that Ted Parsons, who drummed for Swans on a fair number of their seminal recordings, is the drummer here. This is also the second, and final, Godflesh studio album to feature a real live drummer, and their first after being released from Earache.

I find Hymns is often overlooked. There are many Godflesh gems here, such as the opening belter "Defeated", which slows to a groaning crawl that really drags out the agonizing pinched harmonics. "Voidhead" is a painful listen (in a good way), taking the repetition of industrial into the nu-metal world kicking and screaming. Then, towards the end you've got the hat-trick of the venomous "Vampires", the ridiculously heavy "Antihuman" and the soaring "Regal" soothing you just before the skull-bashing closer, "Jesu".

Being a Godflesh record, there was a 50/50 chance that the cover art was going to be fucking shite. It kinda looks like it was just pulled off a Google image search, and the booklet doesn't really elaborate much either. The End Records and Music On Vinyl also did everybody a solid and put this out on vinyl in 2013, leaving Us & Them as the only Godflesh album not available on wax. Surely drum and bass belongs on vinyl, right? If I ever win the lottery I'll finance the repress myself, if Digby lets me buy the rights. Anyway, I'm rambling. I'll fuck off now. Listen to this:

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Godflesh's return was one of the most exciting things ever. I traveled to France in 2010 to catch their first ever live appearance since splitting up years before, and then I fanged it over to Roadburn the following year in order to catch them slamming out Streetcleaner in it's entirety. I unfortunately missed the performance of Pure live at Roadburn two years later but after catching a few more live appearances around the UK I was like a baying hound for new Godflesh material.

The Decline & Fall EP appeared; a bizarre mix harking back to not only the glory days, but the Us and Them era, but this was only 4 tracks. So when A World Lit Only By Fire dropped, I wrapped my head around it the day it was released and listened to about nothing else for about a week straight. Unsurprisingly, I was quite burned out on Godflesh at this point so I shagged off writing a post about it for a while. That "while" became well over a year, so it's about time I finally face up to this.

What came with A World... was more of the dirgy 8-string compositions from Decline & Fall, but with less hip hop beat and more industrial devastation. It is a modern day, fine-tuned crushing machine in the form of industrialized drum machine metal. "New Dark Ages" features a riff that would cause the downfall of many a boring nu-metal act; chugga-chugga-chugga it goes, over and over and over, with an almost unhealthy disdain for every other string and note available from the guitar. But here, under the guidance of Godflesh's punishing simplicity, it works like a sledgehammer to the face.

"Shut Me Down" and the excellent "Life Giver, Life Taker" stand out to me from the digitized bog, as well as the sinister "Carrion", which boasts the rarely-used but pant-shittingly heavy pitchshifted vocal style that popped up now and then in the early days. Don't get me wrong, this ain't no Streetcleaner, no Pure or Slavestate - but it's pretty fucking heavy. It's a sad reality that when bands have such a titanic back-catalogue (I'm talking life-changing, genre-defining records), the "new shit" is always going to pale in comparison, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that this shits on most of the stuff that came out in 2014.

Godflesh - Decline & Fall

It was only with the release of Godflesh’s new full-length album A World Lit Only By Flame that I realised that I hadn’t even done a post for their comeback EP, Decline & Fall. I suppose it’s because it dropped when Lines In Wax was taking a bit of a break earlier in the year, and I did most of my listening for Decline & fall lying on beaches on exotic Thai islands (a strange way to aurally ingest the ‘Flesh, I’ll be honest).  If I had to sum this review up in a single line, I would tell you that Decline & Fall sounds so much like Godflesh that it hurts.

But it also sounds like nothing they have done before. All the parts are there, but the massive break that this band has taken has obviously allowed them to re-look at the Godflesh template with fresh eyes (and ears). There is only so much you can do with a sound as limiting as Godflesh’s punishing drum-machine metal attack, but I’d call this a successful comeback. It is a mirage of all the band’s previous styles (“Dogbite” sounds like it could have easily been on Us & Them) funnelled through the excess heaviness of an 8 string guitar.

I will also say that the music world has missed Ben Green’s bass. He’s an understated dude; the quiet back-end of Godflesh’s raw power, but shiiiiiit it’s good to hear that cheesegrater bass guitar again. It’s so simple but once you hear it again you can’t imagine heavy music without it. Expect a more in-depth look of the new album soon. Until then, all hail the new ‘Flesh!

JK Flesh - Posthuman

Seeing Justin Broadrick performing live as JK Flesh in Roadburn 2012 really opened up my eyes; it was like a dream coming true, the dirgy rhythms, haunting vocals and nasty guitar sound of Godflesh mashed head on into dubstep-style heavy bass and programmed drums. I didn't really know wether I should dance or punch somebody in the face. To be true, I did neither; I just stood there bobbing my head as the awesomeness washed over me, pummelling me into a pulp of useless flesh and deafening me past the point of ever comprehending music ever again. A slight overstatement, but a fantastic experience nonetheless. 

When I heard that his debut LP under this name would be coming out a short-while later, I almost jumped for joy. When the record dropped I was skint as fuck so I didn't get it initially, but I picked it up a few months later on my birthday. The true depth of the vinyl format is needed for something that sounds as massive as this; the pressing is excellent and does a cracking job of portraying the full bottomless sound of JK Flesh's aural assault. Things get off to a slow and creepy start with "Knuckledragger", but then "Idle Hands" chugs things up in true JK style. 

It's a fairly long record, considering the simplicity of the subject matter, but it doesn't make for a tiring listen; every song is perfect. Honestly, it doesn't get spun as much as my Godflesh records, but it's still pretty damn awesome. Released in 2012 by 3BY3 Records, and seemingly still available at a decent price (about £20, which isn't bad considering they are fairly limited (500 only)). Check it out and get one!

Jesu - Everyday I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came

Oh, how I have longed for a new Jesu release! I snoozed on the previous new material (the Duchess 7") and it sold out before I had even the slightest chance of even considering buying it, and now it is added to my neverending list of expensive shit to buy off Discogs. Trouble is, it's hard to find the money to keep up with all the new releases in the first place, doubly hard when there's a growing backlog of rare shit forever tempting you online! The woes of the record collector on a budget! Ha!

Everyday I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came is a fantastic and rather "in the feels" type of record title. That, along with the abstract cover art, which to me conjures feelings of times past, brings on the realisation that our time on this planet is a very short one indeed...only getting shorter and shorter with every passing second. Fuck this! When the first track, "Homesick", kicks in with the usual Jesu-brand laid back electronica meets heavy riffage and melancholic atmosphere, the feeling only gets heavier. I heard that Justin wrote a song about missing his kid whilst on tour, and whilst I'm not entirely sure that's true, the title "Homesick" could well reveal that this is that track. Maybe.

I don't really see Everyday... as an EP, even though it is only 5 tracks in length, "The Great Leveller" - which starts with a nice piano and builds and builds - is over 17 minutes long, bringing the total run time up to something like 45 minutes. Which is good value for money, seeing as we are on the subject! Well impressed with this new Jesu stuff...it ranks a lot higher than the recent Ascension album which I think a lot of people didn't really like and I never bought since I want all the Jesu stuff on vinyl and the vinyl version doesn't seem to be materializing anytime soon. It's no Silver, but I can see Everyday... becoming a Jesu must-hear with time. Justin Broadrick, you're a genius! My fandom knows no bounds (although I'm not that familiar with Techno Animal haha!).

As far as I can tell this was self-released by Justin and his Avalanche Recordings label. It's pretty limited, and the grey copies are all sold out, so I got the black. I'd get this before it's gone!

Godflesh - Pure

It's that time again; another Godflesh post! How long will this one be? How far up Justin Broadrick's arse can I get this time? Ha ha! All jokes aside, my love for Godflesh is seemingly never-ending, although I do have lapses in listening time these days as there is so much other stuff out there I'm currently wrapping my lugholes around. At the moment I've been on a tremendous (and possibly worrying) hip hop / Bjork kick, so switching back to something as punishing as early Godflesh for the purpose of this review has really juxtaposed my listening ability. I guess it makes Pure seem twenty thousand times heavier. That can only be a good thing.

I'm not sure if Pure was the logical progression from something as sprawling and nauseatingly epic as Streetcleaner. I can totally see how the band got from A to B, so to speak, but Godflesh could have just as easily wandered off into the wailing, droning, clanking territory instead. Regardless of what could have happened, history dictates that Godflesh tightened and disciplined their sound for their second record. Pure is clinical and more machine-like than before. Both Streetcleaner and Godflesh are mechanical as fuck, but they also both presented a harrowing sense of depth and that weird sense of claustrophobia (or is that agoraphobia?). Pure just gets in, fucks you up, and leaves. It is an absolute riff machine.

I'm surprised this isn't more popular in "regular" metal circles; the riffs on display here are tight and mosh pit inducing. If this record didn't exist, neither would Fear Factory (or maybe they would have just stayed as a death metal band). The production is something that is very similar to the later, metal-to-the-core Pantera, and I don't suppose that it's a coincidence that Justin ended up remixing on the "Walk" single. Even Metallica's Kirk Hammet claimed that Godflesh were the heaviest band on the planet, before he stole a bunch of artwork ideas and was a general all-round dick. To top it all off, Metallica went on to release Load and Reload at this point, so karma is a bitch.

 

This LP can be rather difficult to find at a decent price. If you keep scoping and peeping that shit on various websites you will eventually be very lucky and can score a copy for a pretty good price. I got mine for the absolute steal of £10, because the seller insisted that the copy wasn't in good shape, despite sending me pictures that seemed to show otherwise. My copy is a bit crackly, but that just lends to it's charm. It looks just like any well-played record would look like after 20 years of storage. Out on Earache Records, and has also been re-issued on CD a gazillion times so you can probably get a copy for 5p or something.

Pig Destroyer / Isis - Split 7"

This is one my favourite splits ever! Limited to 2000 copies thanks to Relapse Records. There is the usual Relapse 100 clear, 100 on orange, a bizarre 50 on white, and the remaining 1750 on black. I was lucky to get a black copy at a fairly decent price, but be wary that the white and orange pressings can fetch hefty price tags on record collector websites.

 

Classic Pig Destroyer are on top form, covering the goregrind legend that is (or was) Carcass. There is simply not a better version of "Genital Grinder / Regurgitation of Giblets" in existence. "Exhume to Consume" leaves a bit to be desired vocal-wise, but for the most part is an ultra-tight, lightening-fast zip through a classic track from the genre.

 

Isis on the other hand, opt for something a lot more slow and dirgy. With Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Jay Randall in tow they sucessfully create their own very unique version of the legendary Godflesh song "Streetcleaner". Not as sprawling in production as the original, but is almost suffocating with claustrophobia.

Godflesh - Slateman

"Slateman" is one of my favourite 'Flesh songs, and is a prime example of what excellence can be achieved by simply using a drum machine right. This isn't particularly heavy or drawn out or even harrowing in any way, but it is the perfect example of Godflesh's sound. The drum sound is absolutely spot on, I don't really know what does it here for me but it's just so right. The bass is clanky and thick, holding down the rhythm perfectly, whilst the guitars wail over the top of everything, kicking into riffage every now and then, bolstering the heaviness and hitting home the beat.

Finally, with the vocals ranging from breezy cleans to distant shouts, there simply isn't a more perfect example of Godflesh. This was released by Sub Pop Records, as part of their "Singles Club" in the 90s. I think this is also available as a 12" which Earache put out. I want to get my grubby hands on that fucker too, even though it is pretty much the same record on a different sized disc. My Godflesh fan-dom knows no bounds! 

Godflesh - Slavestate Remixes

I initially thought this just a completists item, and being a total crazy fan I simply had to get a copy on my quest to own all Godflesh stuff. The "Radioslave" version carries the original off on a whole new tangent, keeping the opening 90s dance vibe as its leading beat rather than heading into the heavyness the original does. The sample of the lyric "Jesus!" blares continually. "Total State" batters "Slavestate" into an unrecognisable mess, and if the world has fallen apart, or the song had demonically re-arranged itself within the machine. Almost as if the computer has taken over the song. Nasty. "Perfect Skin Dub" on the other hand, is rather relaxing for a smoldering fuck of a drawn out remix. All hope that remained in the original has been squashed and crushed to fucking nothing.

This original Earache package didn't last very long, but suprisingly it isn't very expensive. I guess people have to want something for it to be collectable. Horrible Godflesh self-remixes obviously weren't the order of the day in 1991. But if horrible re-workings of usually clinically precise songs are your bag, get some of this.

Godflesh - Slavestate

Godflesh is one of my favourite bands. Not of all time, because I have not known them "all time". But, when I finally got my head out my arse and searched for some music that wasn't grindcore, German techno-porngrind or Sunn O))), I never, ever looked back. Godflesh's effect on my outlook of music is just as important as Napalm Death's original input into my perception of music (how ironic it is that both bands are / were so closely related). I was originally going to explain how Godflesh made me learn how horrible noise can be fantastic to listen to, but I guess some areas of grindcore cover that already. And as for learning that music doesn't have to be 1000mph to be heavy, I can thank Sunn O))), or more traditionally, Sabbath, Cathedral et al. No, what Godflesh did is teach me more about an underlying mood in music. I have always felt moods in music, don't get me wrong, it is why I feel so close to music in the first place, but to use sounds in such a way that create such a sense of claustrophobia and helplessness is truley an artform.

Slavestate starts off with the title track; pounding 90s dance beats (that Godflesh seem to sneak into a lot of tracks around this era) quickly become dissonant guitars and pummelling drum machines. Rather pacey for a Godflesh track, Broadrick bellows "Fear Factory" over the top of this track as if there was no tomorrow (or any death metal band to instantly start mimmicking him ;D). "Perfect Skin" comes on next, mingling brain-bashing drum machines with a glimmering, hopeful synth that nicely counteracts the crushing heavyness of Benny's bass and Justin's guitars. It continues to ache away behind the main barrage. If one may divulge into some top notch art-faggery; Godflesh is the oil rig, the synth is the beautiful ocean and sunset behind it. Wow that was deep. Ha ha.

On the flipside "Someone Somewhere Scorned" bashes drums into your face like it wants you dead (again first coming on like something you'd hear on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack) before closer "Meltdown" is riff-bendingly good 'Flesh of old. Chuggachugga Snare! Snare! *Head explodes*. Unlike many Godflesh EPs that would follow Slavestate, I would suggest this to somebody who was unfamiliar with the works of Godflesh. It represents their sound enough but isn't as interverted and self-hating as later records. Godflesh become more "poppy" from Selfless onwards (disregarding final album Hymns), so Slavestate is a last shining example of their crushing original sound.

A couple of different pressings of this exist, all on Earache of course, but the original contains only the main four songs. The remixes were originally released as a separate 12" (which I also have here) but on later pressings of Slatestate the speed was cut down to 33rpm and they were bundled onto side B. This is fairly cheap, and the remixes even cheaper, so I recommend you pick it up :D

Godflesh - Godflesh

It is often easy whilst analyzing Godflesh's contribution and effect upon heavy music to focus wholly on the groundbreaking Streetcleaner record and to overlook this crooked, snarling little gem of industrial terror. More claustrophobic than Streetcleaner's sprawling inhuman soundscape, Godflesh pummels the listener with a mechanized drum machine attack and plodding, menacing bass.

 

What I have here is the original, untouched Swordfish Records pressing of this EP. Some think that the clear Swordfish pressing is rarer, but it is actually a repress. All original copies of Godflesh were made on black vinyl. Subsequent Earache re-issues of this can suck my fucking cock. And whilst the original Swordfish pressing isn't the most pricey and saught after record in existence, it remains one of my personal favourites. It is the mechanical hell of Godflesh's early existence and sound summed up in 6 tracks. It's concise and to the point, and then destroys the listener - mind, body and soul - with it's never-ending outro; "Ice Nerveshatter".

I could sit here all day thinking up new ways to tell you how good Godflesh are, and how fucking crushing this record is, but I think I've written enough so I'll just let the music do the talking. Track 3, "Godhead", is one of my all time Godflesh favs, so please do it justice and play it loud as fuck, and prepare to be pressed into oblivion!