Drone Records

GODFLESH - Purge

Format: CD

Label & Cat.Number: Avalanche Recordings AREC066

Release Year: 2023

Note: GUITARS, VOICE, BASS, MACHINES, HEAVINESS - the "industrial metal" legends are back! - *Both minimal and maximal, with layer upon layer of filth and heaviness, Godflesh deliver alien grooves that swing whilst also retaining the psychedelic / bad trip edge that Godflesh has always obsessed over. This is, and always has been, feel bad music.* - 8 tracks, CD version digipak

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €15.00

More Info

listen: https://godflesh1.bandcamp.com/album/purge

First new recordings from GODFLESH since 2017's critically acclaimed full length 'POST SELF'.

'PURGE' musically, amongst the many layers of dirt, revisits and updates the concepts explored on the 'PURE' album from 1992; 90's hip hop grooves mangled and put through the GODFLESH filter to create something that is still unique and futuristic in style.

Both minimal and maximal, with layer upon layer of filth and heaviness, Godflesh deliver alien grooves that swing whilst also retaining the psychedelic / bad trip edge that Godflesh has always obsessed over. This is, and always has been, feel bad music; the title alone 'PURGE' references directly how songwriter / creator Justin K Broadrick utilises this music as temporary relief from his diagnosed autism and PTSD, a journey he has been on since he began creating music and feeling alone and as an outsider in any 'scene' or 'group' from childhood and throughout his adulthood.

Godflesh gives him the means to express a lifetime of feeling misunderstood and overwhelmed by hyper sensitivity, the band being the vehicle to give him some sense of catharsis and transcendence; a way of communicating overload and constant disenchantment at the human condition, and man's abuse of power and the systems that chain us.

The album references the cycle of horror that man has always and will always put us through; those in positions of power revel in the infliction of pain and horror upon individuals, in the name of their religion, their power, their money, their flags....

8 songs, delivered in a concise fashion for fellow outsiders.

A digital only single of the opening song 'NERO' coupled with 3 self remixes will be released April 3rd.

The duo of GODFLESH, Justin K Broadrick and Ben Green, augmented by Machines, are seen as a pivotal entity in the world of 'heavy' music, impacting entire cultures of heavy music since the bands inception in 1988. It is regarded as a cultural icon, and its impact can be felt across generations of 'heavy' music, both mainstream and underground. It is credited as being one of the first bands to cross old British industrial music with down tuned primitive minimal metal, accidentally pioneering the 'industrial metal' sound, yet the band has so much more to offer than what that term displays."

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"After so many years of development, it can be a risky prospect for any band to home in on one specific point in its history, seeking to hopefully refine the ideas originally explored. Such is the case with Purge, in which Godflesh returns to the eroded foundations of 1992’s Pure, when Justin K. Broadrick and G.C. Green first began infusing their monolithic brand of industrial/metal with the rhythmic rubble of hip-hop and psychedelic ambience. What’s perhaps most alarming is how successfully the duo achieves this revisitation without being bogged down by the trappings of nostalgia or losing the primitive and primal minimalism that has been at the core of the band’s modus operandi.

The opening tracks set the stage as “Nero,” “Land Lord,” and “Army of Non” all submerge the listener in that signature Godflesh distortion, Green’s thunderous bass resonating with an almost funky vibrance amid the breaking beats while Broadrick’s barks and growls are persistently matched by his simple yet evocative riffs, traces of vocal samples buried in the mix to evoke that early ‘90s hip-hop vibe. Of course, these three songs, along with the monochromatic cover art, immediately conjure memories of Pure, but things soon shift toward even murkier waters. “The Father” bears a closer resemblance to Selfless as the reverberant sustain of Broadrick’s impassioned voice and cries of chilly pads engulf the listener in a dreamlike haze, while the faster tempo and whiplash snares of “Permission” recall the band’s experiments with drum & bass. And then we have the menace and monstrosity of “Mythology of Self” like a beast ravening for bloody delights, it’s penetrative and insistent tone exceeded only by the mechanical and apocalyptic despair of the concluding “You are the Judge the Jury and the Executioner,” Broadrick’s still and despondent voice resounding amid squeals of guitar feedback and Green’s chugging bass.

Written in the wake of his diagnosis of PTSD and autism, the album is aptly titled as it presents Broadrick’s most personal lyrical material yet, searching for relief and ultimate transcendence from a lifetime of negativity and isolation. Such has been the purpose of Godflesh since its foundation, and so Purge may offer little-to-no surprises for anyone familiar with the band’s music. However, Broadrick and Green are long removed from the youthful desire for acceptance or recognition… that is, assuming they ever sought that… this writer suspects not. Instead, Purge offers the pure (pun only partially intended) and perfected essence of Godflesh." [Re->Gen mag]