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.

Mixomatosis - Grind

As with the other Mixomatosis 7" I have, I have come to the conclusion that they seem desperate to squeeze as little as they can onto a record and call it an EP. Saying that, this is by far my favourite Mixomatosis minute or two; obscene goregrind obviously digitally remixed (shifted drums) melds awkwardly with (probably copyrighted) full orchestra music, before falling away and returning with more flanger-drenched horribleness. This is more noisecore than I ever thought Mixomatosis could get, which is rather ironic considering this basic package is called Grind. 

Another thing I don't get: it's fucking one-sided. I hate blank one-sided records! What a fucking waste! If you are gonna go blank, fucking etch something on there! Otherwise split with another band for fuck sake. What a waste of money. We are even spared the luxury of a sleeve and tracklist, just brilliant red vinyl and a shitty little piece of card. Good tunes, but not worth my money, let alone the time, effort and investment in pressing this in the first place.

(as with the last Mixo post, the audio off this disc is not on Youtube, so please enjoy this other random Mixo tune as a substitute.) 

Unholy Grave / Total Fucking Destruction - Split 7"

 

 

Alas Babylon! What we get here from the forever excellent and fantastico! crazy grinders TFD are demo versions / different recordings of songs that appear on the Hater record, mixed with a few others for good measure. The sound is big and biting as usual, the clusterfuck drums ahead of the winding guitars. It is a condensed version of some of their excellent tracks and a great place to start if you've never heard their mental-as-fuck grindcore but don't want to commit to a full length record. 

You've also got the excellent and ever-prolific Unholy Grave on side B like a Japanese Agathocles. Suprisingly catchy for noisier-than-thee grind. One complaint is that the drums drown out everything else, but hey, it is still pretty awesome. The vocals are rabid as feck. Limited to 200 copies on black and 200 copies on white, this pressing by Bones Brigade is almost certainly out of print! It also comes with a limited mega handy dandy TFD patch.

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.

Carcass - Symphonies of Sickness

This is one of the albums that changed my life, as far as music is concerned. By far superior to anything else the Carcass discography, Symphonies of Sickness is the ultimate expression in downtuned guitars, scatterfuck dual vocals and blasting drums. The crisp and warm guitar tone can only be described as grinding. This is the definate grindcore guitar sound; fuzzy, yet grating enough to create a suitable amount of audible chaos. Symphonies can sound a bit flat on CD, but this original Earache pressing sounds absolutely unbelievable. It holds a deep, almost fathomless sound. I dare any melo-death nerd that scorns at Carcass' early cannon to come listen to my copy of Symphonies and disagree to it's sheer awesomeness!

The music here has always held a very morbid vibe for me. I've seen it all as far as gore and splatter is concerned (thanks to the internet), but there is something downright disturbing about Carcass' all out graphic medical dialogue. Where some lyrics verge rather obviously into the regions of bad taste comedy, some passages of nauseating atomical gore descriptions succeed in truly curdling your stomach and rumbling your bowels enough to get your colon kicking like a frightened horse. "Excoriating Abdominal Excoration", "Swarming Vulgar Mass of Infect Virulency" and "Cadaveric Incubator of Endoparasites" are but three prime examples of this. I thought it was so cool that in high school I used to insult people by calling them Carcass song titles; "Fuck off, you absolute swarming vulgar mass of infected virulency!"

Whilst it may not share the same production efforts as later "polished turd"-era Carcass, Symphonies of Sickness holds a fantastic mix and is light years ahead of previous record Reek of Putrefaction, bridging the gap - and taking the best from - past and future efforts. The perfect balance and the perfect record! It is very hard to get such a fine balance between grind and death metal, but this here is a shining example. Whilst I do not believe that Necroticism onwards was the correct logical step for a band waist deep in filth such as Carcass, I do believe that it would have been astronomically difficult to top a record like Symphonies of Sickness if they had continued in this vein.

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

Agoraphobic Nosebleed / Kill The Client - Split 7"

This is a special post for me, as this was my first ever Agoraphobic Nosebleed vinyl, and also one of the first 7"s I ever bought. I am talking, of course, of the fucking livid split ANb did with Kill The Client on Relapse back in 2007. This is part of the original pressing of 1000, split into 500 on yellow / red splatter, 400 on green / yellow splatter and 100 on clear. It was sneakily repressed in 2010 on 500 copies of solid purple.

Kill The Client play some fast-as-fuck blistering grind. The drumming is ultra tight and the guitar work is rapid, but this is just one of those records where one band dominates over the other, and here the monumental digi-grind of Agoraphobic Nosebleed towers over Kill The Client's performance (as amazing as it is), almost eclipsing it completely!

I've never heard a guitar tone quite like Scott Hull's set up on this recording, the guitar itself almost sounds robotic alongside the endless pummelling drum machines. Randall's cracked, angry-as-fuck white guy voice sits awkwardly on top of bare bones guitar and drums, spitting questioning bursts of hatred and pure anger. Agoraphobic Nosebleed's self-destructive, nihilistic lyrical angle is never as clear cut as it is here; these few minutes are nothing but pure, spiteful hell. And it's fucking perfect.

I will be silly enough to make a bold enough statement that every single person into heavy music must hear this record (the ANb side, at least). Ladies and gentlemen, this is grindcore.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - A Clockwork Sodom / Tentacles Of Destruction 7"

Very interesting EP from Agoraphobic Nosebleed, out on Garden Of Exile in a plethora of different colours. In the first pressing of 800 copies, 350 were made on black, 250 yellow, 150 white and 50 super rare yellow / white "fucked up" versions that were offered as a pre-order. These 50 are hand numbered and fetch up to £40 on Discogs. The entire release was repressed the same year (2007) on a 100 red copies. Oddly, in 2008 another 50 were pressed on red, but this time featuring radically different artwork (mayhaps they ran out of the original jackets - lol).

To me, the music on this 7" feels like the tracks that wouldn't fit / would be out of place on the "Altered States Of America" mini CD. Unless I am very much mistaken, the tracks are from the same recording period, sharing the same hissing, razor-sharp guitar sound and boxy, mile-a-minute inhuman drumming. It also shares the same clusterfuck of a three vocalist attack, making it a harsh yet satisfying listen. However, if I had to pick my least favourite ANb stuff, it would be the material on this record. That's not to say I don't like it, mind you!

This post is dedicated to the loss of my friend Gumpy's copy of the first repress on red. He left it on the bus back from Hellfest in France along with several other fantastic records and it was never seen again! A tragic day!