Godflesh may not have release any new music for 13 long years, despite returning to the live circuit a while ago no, but Justin K Broadrick’s hardly been idle during the band’s time away. In fact, one suspects that had he not been so busy with Jesu, Pale Sketcher and his solo output as JK Flesh, new Godflesh material might have emerged considerably sooner. That’s not a complaint, however: Broadrick’s myriad outlets for his prodigious creativity have all explored different avenues, without ever giving fans cause to lament the absence of Godflesh. Still, their return is a timely reminder of just what an immense force they were, and the influence they continue to exert over contemporary metal industrial and beyond. There’s only one band that can have quite the impact of Godflesh, and that’s Godflesh, and time has done nothing to alter that.
‘Decline and Fall’ presents four new tracks ahead of the new album, due in the autumn. First, let’s cut to the chase. Yes, it’s classic Godflesh. The first track, ‘Ringer’, is six and a half minutes of heavy trudge, overloading guitars grinding a repetitive sludgy metallic riff over relentless percussion, while Broadrick’s vocals, bathed in heavy reverb, draw out each syllable over half a bar apiece and are so low in the mix an to be barely audible.
‘Dogbite’ brings a sinewy guitar line which twists and turns over a bowel-shuddering bassline and thudding, monotonous drum beat. Reminiscent of ‘Amoral’ from ‘Songs of Love and Hate’, it’s a punishing lump of noise: Broadrick snarls single words from the back of his throat as the riff pounds on without mercy. If one thing’s for sure, Godflesh haven’t gone soft, and ‘Playing With Fire’, which also reaches past the six minute mark ploughs a deep, ugly furrow, as brutal as anything on, say, ‘Streetcleaner’ or ‘Pure’.
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The title track drags the pace back to a crawl, a nasty mess or distortion with squalling feedback notes escaping before a devastating wall of driving overdriven guitar blasts everything into oblivion in a sonic tsunami. Broadrick’s vocal is reduced to gnarly, ragged bark, and meanwhile the mechanized drums continue to pulverize the speakers and smash the airwaves.
Godflesh still sound inhuman, beyond human, forging a dense noise that encapsulates the very idea of ‘industrial metal’: it’s not simply about music, but a crushing sonic atmosphere that captures the devolvement of man and the encroaching supremacy of the machine. ‘Decline and Fall’ is punishing, brutal, and as unrelenting, merciless and and intensely heavy as anything Godflesh have released. A welcome return indeed.
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