Reviews list for Godflesh - Streetcleaner (1989)

AAHHH Smells like a classic. Can't you smell it? When you read the titles? See the album art? Hear the screaming? the pounding repition of the snare in the track Pulp while the guitar wails behind it? Smells like dirty streets, burnt out garbage cans, and Disatissfaction.  Love it. The imagery is very strong when listening to this album.  Broaderick is very powerful in his delivery and messaging. Long hailed a pioneer of this sound, this album stands up as being just as heavy and enjoyable to listen to today which for something recorded in 89 is saying something considering how many artists these days continue to try and 'push the envelope'. Pack it in guys, Justin Broaderick basically invented the envelope decades ago and it remains unmatched by many sounds. Life is Easy is like the industrial version of a funeral doom dredge, just ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh   for 5 minutes ( bonus if you go ahhhhhh with it)  Then Streetclear picks up  with some more dynamic drum beats and to keep you hooked in.  Dead Head and  Suction finish the album with what I feel are very bass heavy tracks, as the vocal becomes more dissonant and pushed further away while the bass takes a more prominant roll in the mix to round out the album. While there are tracks on here that stand out as ' singles' ( Pulp, Locust Furnace)  I do think it is best enjoyed as a singluar listen start to finish. 

Godflesh was formed by Justin Broadrick after leaving Napalm Death and his own side-project that wasn't going anywhere. If anyone thought Godflesh was just another grind act, they would be surprised by an entirely new sound in their 1989 debut Streetcleaner! However, for listeners of other noisy experimental acts like Fall of Because (earlier incarnation of Godflesh) and Head of David, this pioneering industrial metal sound was already foreshadowed...

Similar to Napalm Death's debut (whom Broadrick was only that debut's first side), each of the two sides were recorded in a different session, with the CD bonus tracks that originally consisted of Tiny Tears EP. This is basically 3 distinctly cohesive EPs compiled into an over-hour-long album that helped define industrial metal!

The first 5-track side is probably the heavier groove-driven side, starting strong with the well-known tune "Like Rats", a furious groove track with a noise-powered bridge ("You breed...like rats!!"). Then we get "Christbait Rising", the track with the most groove and a bit of a hip-hop influence ("Christbait, slugbait!!"). Most of the time, I say hip-hop and metal don't mix, but I'm willing to make an exception here. The hip-hop influence is only in the beats with no rapping at all. Instead, the vocals are just shouts of aggression and reverb, the closest connection to Napalm Death. "Pulp" is another favorite here that can pulverize you into a pulp with the bass and drum machine rolling under the burning guitar slashing through vocals in a hopeless crescendo yelling "PULP" repeatedly until the last breath. "Dream Long Dead" is a good song, but not as great as the album's standouts. Another standout includes the awesome "Head Dirt". They continue playing super lower riffs that sometimes hang in the background behind bass and drums, but either way, the guitar can never go unnoticed!

Beginning the colder isolated side is the devastating intro "Devastator"! For this side, stepping in is second guitarist Paul Neville who were also with Broadrick and G.C. Green in Fall of Because. "Mighty Trust Krusher" has some of Godflesh's earliest traces. Same with "Life is Easy", with an approach easily compared to Swans before they moved out of their original industrial-noise sound at that time. Thanks to the dual guitar attack, bands like Pitchshifter would be able to emphasize their discordant lead work and help develop industrial metal. The torturously tremendous title track begins with a disturbing sound sample of suffering, then starts the industrial sludge/doom march as aliens clean the streets free from the corpses of those killed in the invasion, announcing the death of humanity. And finally, into the "Locust Furnace" the corpses of the human race are thrown into for their cremation. In that song, Justin continues his shouts of tortured devastation until the end ("FURNACE!!!").

And now, here we are at the third and final side, the unreleased "Tiny Tears" EP, starting with the title track... "Tiny Tears", probably my favorite song of that EP/side! "Wound" is another standout with its main riff bringing down even the tallest and most stable building. "Dead Head" frantically stretches out the vocals in an optimistic way. Last but not least, "Suction" is another short piece. Similar to the rest of the EP, it sounds more like industrial hard rock within the riffs and beats, with the vocals sounding cleaner for an ethereal tone. But it's still worth hearing...

Streetcleaner has cleared the gap between industrial and metal to form a hybrid genre that Godflesh would be known for throughout their career. However, they would later experiment with electro-dance/trip-hop sounds, similar to the new Pain of Salvation album. The main driving force of Godflesh's debut is the instrumentation. This album is the classic of all industrial metal classics and a crucial part of any industrial/metal fan's collection!

Favorites: "Like Rats", "Pulp", "Head Dirt", "Life is Easy", "Streetcleaner", "Tiny Tears", "Wound"

“Streetcleaner” is probably Godflesh’s most praised release but personally, I don’t consider it one of their best. It’s definitely their most brutal LP, and was certainly groundbreaking in 1989, so I understand why it’s held in such high regard. It also starts off VERY strong with “Like Rats” and “Christbait Rising,” the latter of which is one of Godflesh’s all time best tracks. But the rest of the songs just aren’t as good. Everything sounds awesome -the guitar break joining “Devastator” and “Mighty Trust Krusher” is creepy as hell-but most of the album just sounds like a sequence of really cool parts, but no standout songs. Also, one of my favorite elements of Godflesh is how Justin Broadrick switches from a tough, barking vocal style to a more somber melodic one. On “Streetcleaner,” he only uses the melodic vocal as a harmony for the shouts. Again, it does sound good, but I wish it wasn’t the only time it was used. My theory is the clean vocals sounded so bad on the first LP ( which I still like) that he avoided doing them  again. For me, Godflesh really hit their stride with their next three albums (and concurrent eps) . This album is undeniably powerful, but I rarely revisit it other than for “Christbait Rising,” which is worth it by itself.