Godflesh - Godflesh (1988) Reviews
Justin Broadrick is very underrated in the metal scene. He's one of the contributing inventors of 3 different genres; grindcore, industrial metal, and post-metal. How did he contribute to those genre inventions, you may ask? Well for grindcore, he played guitar for grindcore pioneers Napalm Death for a few demos, one of those demos becoming side A of their debut Scum. After leaving that band, he began experimenting with music that was atypical for metal at that time. He wanted to create something out of the genres and bands he loved, including the hardcore of Discharge, the crust of Doom, the anarcho-punk of Crass, the industrial of Throbbing Gristle, the noise of Swans, and the post-punk of Killing Joke. This mix became prominent in his project Head of David, the first ever band of both industrial metal and post-metal! At the same time, Justin has his own project going on with G.C. Green and Paul Neville. Originally named Fall of Because after a Killing Joke song, the name was later changed to Godflesh.
It's a little cliché for the very first release of a project to be self-titled, but that doesn't matter. The Godflesh EP was groundbreaking at that time for setting up a new genre that's slower and gloomier than even doom metal. Justin Broadrick was inspired by the cold bleak atmosphere of his home town Birmingham, similar to the city's most famous band Black Sabbath, but Godflesh went far ahead with their influences. In the 70s and 80s, almost every metal band had set up an entryway for new genres to be formed. Besides Black Sabbath, the hard rock of Deep Purple would inspire the heavy metal of Judas Priest who would inspire the NWOBHM/speed metal of Raven, Iron Maiden, and Accept that would inspire the thrash metal of Metallica and Slayer that would inspire death metal, grindcore, and black metal, thus forming the extreme metal umbrella together with the slow doom metal of Candlemass who would inspire Godflesh to reverse those standards. Godflesh focuses on the heavy groove dissonance of industrial/noise masters at its bleakest. No electronic-dance sh*t, just the heaviness of dissonant bass and downtuned guitar. How else can you define industrial metal?
Think about this further in the opening "Avalanche Master Song" which has lyrics of strong hate and a pondering bass groove as its main role unlike other metal bands accompanied by guitar feedback and a programmed marching rhythm. That f***ing groove has practically invented groove metal, inspiring Pantera to drop their glam act, Sepultura to add more groove to their thrash, and the alt-noise-metal band Helmet to be formed. Then we head to the hardcore-sounding "Veins". Then the doomy "Godhead" shows the band in creepy filthy gloomy sludgy agony. They've surpassed Black Sabbath by many miles and would break ground for new subgenres to come in the 90s with more focus on heaviness and groove, instead of speed and melody that's completely absent here.
Next track "Spinebender" focuses on creative beats and dissonance that might bring discomfort to anyone including classic metalheads. Once again, "Weak Flesh" shows Broadrick's Discharge-like hardcore roots with a more "p*ssed" faster pace while having the atypical vibe. Wait a minute... "Godhead", "Weak Flesh"... That's it! That's how they got their name, to mix sludgy doom and hardcore in an industrial sound. Glad they aren't named "Weakhead", lol. "Ice Nerveshatter" has hip-hop beats that actually sound excellent. Hip-hop was like the Voldemort of metal at that time, but Godflesh killed that taboo and showed us that mix isn't that bad in their first 5 full albums.
Speaking of full albums, the 1990 reissue extends the EP into kind of a full album with two long remixes from the Streetcleaner album, "Wounds" and "Streetcleaner 2". Both of those remixes show some of Broadrick's hip-hop roots that were scornful from metalheads at that time, along with his influences from Swans in a different perspective of devastated reality. You can also hear a bit of the solid vocal aggression to be delivered in the Streetcleaner album, more aggressive than the EP where the music has spoken.
Godflesh, both the band and their self-titled EP, was a new beginning for metal. Initially, it wasn't strongly received and still in the underground, but it marked a revolutionary path setting to Streetcleaner that would change metal history forever. This masterpiece of an EP and Head of David back then were a taste of the industrial metal future!
Favorites: "Avalanche Master Song", "Godhead", "Weak Flesh", "Ice Nerveshatter"