GODFLESH : "Decay"

The 10th album from JustinBroadrick's crushing British industrial machine is a harrowing portrait that reflects the state of the world back to us sonically. The nightmarish opening track his a huge sound. As a song, it's more of a hypnotic, droning mood, andd a fitting soundtrack for the end of days in any case. This also marks the end of Godflesh and perhaps music for Broadrick due to health issues.  Vocals come in for the second song, "Living / Ending," which finds a powerful groove that throbs and captures the classic spirit of this project. The guitars carry a gargantuan chug that sounds like a monster stomping through Tokyo.

 Ben Green joins Broadrick in this farewall with his bass thumping as aggressively as ever. "Feral Colony" finds the momentum building even though his vocals are more of a distant chant over the collapsing world captured in the samples of this song.It shows that atmosphere is just as important to industrial music, as it brings balance. This carries over to some extent in " Fear of Man", It's less droning than the opening song, but not as song-focused as the rest of the previous songs.  

"Fodder' has a more malicious intent in its pounding...It varies just enough to create the illusion of having a verse and chorus section. Their version of dynamics is how many layers of sound are included in pounding your ears. "Consume Me " is the lat song on their last album, so that puts the pressure on. It is sonically heavy and rings out with dissonance. The vocals are a lower,\ snarled mutter as the song unfolds in a singular point of bleak expulsion. This sprawls out for almost 12 minutes. This does sum up who they are and what they do even if it is not their best batch of songs, it's better than many bands' best batches of songs. This band just raised the bar for themselves really high, but with that said, I will still give this one a 9.The end comes September 25th on Relapse Records.

 

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