Not everything that dies stays dead and that is certainly true as far as bands are concerned. Just look at what is going on at the moment in extreme music land. After well in excess of ten year gaps between albums, break ups and periods of inactivity we are getting new full-lengthers by some of the much missed innovative leaders of the scene such as Mysticum, At The Gates and Godflesh. All proving reactivated, re-energised and not going through the motions of simply playing the old hits live (certainly not in Mysticum’s case) but putting out new recorded material as relevant sounding as it was when they last ceased to be. Godflesh have a huge legacy behind them having been shat out of the doom and gloom of late 80’s and early 90’s Birmingham with their hefty brand of of smog choking mechanical industrialism, which helped spawn a horde of imitators. There seminal moment as far as I am concerned was 1989 debut album Streetcleaner and if I were forced to do one of those horrible ten albums that have stayed with you exercises doing the rounds on social media I would be hard pressed not to include it in there. I’m not going to bother recounting the history of the band and their disintegration, you should be well aware of it. Let’s stick with the present which has been laid out for us with the warning shot across the bows that was comeback EP ‘Decline And Fall’ earlier this year. It most definitely should have had old fans sitting back up and listening and it was good to note that the album does not set about rehashing and including any of the four worthy tracks that were on it but gives us another ten brand new ones to back it up. So is their world really lit up by fire all over again?
Well the simple answer would be yes. From the opening cold palpitating crunch of ‘New Dark Ages’ it is evident that CC Green and Justin K Broadrick are back near enough where they left off all those years ago with 2001 album ‘Hymns.’ A massive bludgeoning and unrelenting force stomps around like a gigantic tin man who has lain in slumber. As aggressive roars heartily yell out the words “don’t look back,” (is that a message) we are trying not to. It’s difficult as the guitar squeals away with one jagged discordant note flurrying from the bruising melee. The volume needs to be turned up loud and the full effects of the bass rumbling allowed to shake through you. It’s like being back in a place that seems like a lifetime ago and boy is it good to be there. Still very much dystopian thematically with words such as “wasteland” and “useless” haranguing the ears tracks like ‘Deadened’ are nihilistic slabs of obtuse decaying dread, everything is crumbling and a fire is definitely needed to cleanse it all so things can start again. Everything ruggedly grooves away, trembling and juddering until a dour martial tone opens up ‘Shut Me Down.’ The words when the machine breaks down… enter my head but this is one that is going to crank on in a determined fashion and do everything it can to stop termination. Drumming up a tribal rhythmic thrust it’s in the face wrapping its clawed hand around you like that demented unstoppable droid in Richard Stanley’s Hardware, well that’s the image it has beaming into my head.
Grinding and wearing you down it continues and at last we get a spot of those clean airy harmonic vocals in the backdrop of ‘Life Giver Life Taker’, bass heavily rumbles about them and the effect is arcane and sinister as the industrialised post punk sound seethes and twists, virtually coursing through the veins. It’s all very bleak there is no saviour coming to the mangled wreckage of this land just the howls of a prophet clamouring for its destruction. ‘Obeyed ‘is a fitting number it is something that has to be done, abandon all hope you who enter here. The vocals are at their most fierce and disgruntled and the instrumentation has become more strident, clashing and striking at you before slow doom like passages replace them to suck further life away. We have hit the halfway mark and The Road is still stretching far in front for those who dare stride forward.
Slightly looser and less claustrophobic ‘Curse Us All’ bounces up and down laying out its beat and leaving you wanting to lurch up and down to it live, spilling beer all over yourself in the process as it grinds on down. The barbed prong of ‘Carrion’ sounds like it is piercing the skin and tearing the flesh away as the all-consuming mass jars and tumbles slowly with crushing force behind it and a hell of a momentous groove laid out like concrete and solidly setting in place. Cruise control is set as ‘Imperator’ glides and dives along with heightened clean vocals employed much more up front in the mix than earlier, all you can do is hang on as the turbulence buffets you and go with the flow which is a heady and harmonic one.
It’s down to the combined weight of the last two numbers the longest on the album to take you right down to the end of the world. Slow and crusty ‘Towers Of Emptiness’ bows as it is gripped by the storm with alien like distorted vocals. At times the beat sounds almost monotonous, bottom end brooding and high snappy snare sound working at different ends of the sonic spectrum both equally destructive. A long torturous slow climax does not add any tranquillity to the piece or install peace particularly on the senses before last number ‘Forgive Our Fathers’ passes final judgement with noise eerily building up into a mighty roar and corrosive charged battery. Things have hit an ultimate peak now and its incredibly effective shattering already fragile senses. Vocals rise to the rafters fragrantly billowing out with an air of grandiosity that would raise dark satanic cathedrals roofs the anti-hymnal treatise formidably coating the sooty landscape into a fug of grime and earthy tar like mess. As it finally fades out and silence is restored 53 minutes after it started, I would not be at all surprised to look up and out the window to see the world is lying ruined in ashes. Godflesh are back and the earth will shake, rattle and roll, you better believe it people!
(9/10 Pete Woods)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PqXB-u4j04
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