Photo by Kim Sølve
Uncompromising legends of sonic warfare are back and prepared to pummel you to death. Godflesh have returned with their new album since 2023’s Purge, and proving once again why they are the pioneers of industrial metal.
Godflesh will unleash their penultimate LP entitled Decay later this month, and they have released a new single and album opener, Master and Slave. From the first opening seconds to the very last haunting note, the track does not let up. Bleak, dark and almost terrifying, it perfectly feels at home in the depths of our nightmares.
FROM PRESS RELEASE:
“Music, for me, is rarely complete,” says Broadrick, “but it has to reach a point where enough is enough. Creatively, there has to be self-discipline. One has to end it.” Broadrick is primarily referring to the nebulous process of writing and arranging songs into their various potential shapes, but he could just as easily be describing Godflesh’s imminent conclusion.
Decay arrives shortly after Broadrick released a public statement about major abdominal surgery he underwent earlier this year. “Fortunately, all of the recordings for ‘Decay’ were completed long before the surgery, vocals included… although the back end of a couple of songs were recorded with the hernia itself, and that was a struggle. I was already aware that the Godflesh shout, so to speak, was exacerbating the hernia greatly, as was every Godflesh performance in the lead-up to the surgery once the hernia appeared, and the hernia was mostly caused by year upon year of shouting in Godflesh. The album was mixed post-surgery, and while I was still in some pain and considerable discomfort, but fortunately Godflesh is generally me expressing my pain, albeit [usually] mental, philosophical and existential, whereas this was physical pain.”
As Godflesh’s active tenure comes to a close, Broadrick expresses gratitude that it was ever his vessel to use as he willed. “It expresses my pain, and I’ve put my body and soul into this expression for the majority of my existence. I feel quite lucky, because Godflesh is now physically impossible for me, rendering it useless. I now wish to move out of its constraints, move on creatively with heavy/ugly music to new ground.”
Listen to Master and Slave
Decay Track List:
- Master and Slave
- Living/Ending
- Feral Colony
- Fear of Man
- Fodder
- Consume Me
Decay releases on September 25th on Relapse Records. Preorder now!