It feels perverse to describe something this overwhelming as being ‘part-time’ but Godflesh only operate as needed, re-emerging now with a satisfyingly crushing ninth album. Their first in six years Purge brings tough machine drums, thick bass roar and sheets of scalding, caustic guitar. Everything you want with no loss of intensity. Godflesh don’t do half measures, it has to be full force. Unlike other bands this long in the tooth you can’t imagine them turning out anything makeweight or touring the hits for the money. It’s not in their nature, they continue to stand apart and Purge is up among their best work.
Reasserting Justin Broadrick’s love of hip hop, a filtered drum beat loops for ten seconds before he and Benny kick in with their huge metallic roar. The first half of the album runs hot with distorted break beats, barked vocals and churning guitar, the bass a deep underground rumble. It’s claustrophobic and propulsive, you find yourself halfway through ‘Army of Non’ before catching your breath. It’s like Dälek in a hectic mood. The pace slacks off a touch for ‘Lazarus Leper’ an anxiety spiral of needling atonal guitar whine and broken beats with Broadrick grimly repeating “nothing makes sense.” Its extended ending brings a brief moment of reflection before the second half.
Shunting together biblical images of rebirth and decay, ‘Lazarus Leper’ is a kind of perfect Godflesh title. Extreme physical states, divine transformation. Cleansing of the rot. Similarly Purge pinpoints the oddly healing aspect of their music. Broadrick says the album’s title describes how he uses Godflesh for relief from his autism and PTSD. His diagnoses are relatively recent but the music has always been both physically oppressive and emotionally cathartic. Like being hammered into the ground by sound until you feel better, screaming as self care.
The title is also a nod that Purge reaches back over thirty years to revisit ideas from their second album Pure. The opening loop is an echo of the one that kicks off ‘Spite’ and while there are plenty of hip hop beats we sadly don’t get an encore of ‘Mothra’s percussive scaffold pole bells. Although Pure is a fan favourite and highly rated in their discography, Broadrick has often admitted to feeling its production wasn’t heavy enough. Last year saw the release of a live version, recorded ten years ago at Roadburn, with an appearance by Robert Hampson who played on the original album. Hampson isn’t here this time but the drifting guitar and echoing vocals of ‘Permission’ are arguably the closest Godflesh have come to sounding like their ‘brother band’ Loop.
On the album’s later tracks the pace drops and the mood darkens further. ‘Mythology Of Self’ drags itself through the sludge, the growling vocal sounding like an ugly taunting spirit. Things splinter and thud in the distance as we pause, exhausted, for a hallucinatory section of swirling noise. Some hope appears on the final track. ‘You Are The Judge, The Jury, And The Executioner’ is one of those Godflesh numbers that bears a little comparison to Jesu, soft vocals and hazy guitars from Justin, bumped along by the low prowl of Ben Green’s bass. ‘Doomgaze’, if you really must. After the suffocating weight of life is shaken off, the closing couple of minutes bring overlapping loops of guitar texture, the hollowed out aftermath.
