Godflesh: Purge

The term industrial has always been a strange one. What does it even mean? Godflesh’s native Birmingham was filled with industry. Manufacturing plants emitting a noise that became a part of the city’s civic vitality, but by extension does that mean the forefathers of nihilism should be considered as some wastrel by-product of it?

Through the decay of economic upheaval and despair during the years of Thatcherism, no British act has captured the raw and primal collective thought quite like Godflesh. Since their 1988 self-titled EP, the blood, sweat and tears of rage bled into their defining 1989 dispatch, Streetcleaner, and three years later with Pure. And it has remained ever-present in the years that followed.

Explicitly consumed and inspired by their council estate surroundings, while the band’s earlier years experienced numerous changes, the principal narratives were formed, and on the back of B.C. Green’s metallic, down-tuned bass assaults, Justin K. Broadrick delivered them through a cauldron of noise in acerbic, soulful ways. For decades the pair have somehow harnessed a malevolence and urgency that has never receded.

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While his multitude of endeavours – not limited to the numerous electronic-based outlets, the melodic slow-motion splendour of Jesu, and most recently alongside Dirk Serries as Loud As Giants – sees Broadrick remain as one of the most vital voices in outsider culture, through the Godflesh prism, alongside Green he stirs up the dread this world has to offer, parting with rancour like an uncoiled spring.

The band’s excellent 2014 comeback dispatch, A World Lit Only By Fire, was 13 years of pent up rage that could only be delivered through the burning lens of Godflesh. Moral crusaders for the maligned, which is fitting considering the band have forever lived in the margins, kicking against the tides and trends that threatened to dwarf and grind them into submission.

Even if the latter was partially true where financial aspects were concerned (let’s be honest, nu metal was the record industry’s final way of making a quick buck from physical product), Broadrick has always held other aces up his sleeve, with the aforementioned Jesu project containing some of his finest ever work.

Still, Godflesh remains the proxy for Broadrick and Green to try and unpick the world’s tapestry of lies. And in many ways, Purge is the record to not only do that, but one that most Godflesh fans hoped the band would deliver.

Following the release 2017’s Post Self, there were doubts as to whether another Godflesh record would surface. Given the world’s incessant conflict and injustice, the circumstances render Godflesh as futureproof. Purge is no re-tread of past glories – this band doesn’t exist for nostalgic purposes, and once again we find Godflesh emitting a calcified timebomb of bile.

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Starting with the jarring discord of Nero, which fits somewhere between the spite of Hymns and the above-noted ’Fire, while Green’s crushing bass weight during Land Lord and Army of None sees Broadrick at his most malice-hearted. A siren-call through the debris to the disenfranchised, and it continues on the humming menace of Lazarus Leper – a bleak undercurrent of dread that crystallises these times.

Next is Permission, which is a frantic, trance-like rush as Godflesh meld together their red-hot resentment with Broadrick’s work as Pale Sketcher. And we remain in this chamber on The Father, echoing the towering dread-scapes Broadrick conjured up alongside Kevin Martin as Techno Animal.

With guitars tracked to the ceiling, Mythology of Self is quintessential Godflesh. That avalanche of noise making you crumble under the weight of despair. And barely emerging from the rubble, The Judge, the Jury, and the Executioner contains all the particles from the preceding tracks – a dead-eyed gaze into a howling black funnel.

And that’s exactly what Purge is. A walking sea of turbulence, navigating through economic crisis, post-Brexit rage and the festering unease. Once again, Godflesh capture these times in spirited, authentic ways. It’s the only way a band like this knows how. Anything less would be considered a total failure.

Purge is out now via Avalanche Recordings. Purchase from Bandcamp.