When there's a negative amount of shits left to give

One of the perks of doing this whole music journalist thing is getting the opportunity to check out groups with whom I haven't yet familiarized myself. British industrial metal pioneers Godflesh is one of those. Even though I've often seen their name in proximity to otherwise kickass units like Ministry and Fear Factory, and even though their band name is equally kickass (and predates Fleshgod Apocalypse by a quarter century, by the way), I just never got around to digging into them.

And as all too many times before when there's a group I haven't followed for years or even decades, I must hereby announce what an utter shame that seems to be. In this case, all the more so. Because holy shit, you guys.

This is not music in a traditional sense. And certainly not in an aesthetically pleasing sense. Opener "Master and Slave" from their latest LP presents a backdrop of air stamps, metallic lashes, and more or less constant, unclassifiable noises. The main tracks themselves consist of gratingly rusty, machine-like chords on top of an equally machine-like, percussive pounding. It keeps going on and on to the point of what would have been considered monotony in the hands of any other group. But this is not monotonous; this is merciless.

Godflesh is one big, sarcastic mirror image of the obscenely inhuman characteristics of especially popular music in this accursed millennium.

Also creating a certain contrast are the constant dissonant frequencies nervously vibrating in and out of each other, straddling the line between notes and noises. There is also a sudden break with drastic vibrations in what seems to be the guitar. In all its steel-hard, impenetrable expression, it sounds like everything's about to fall apart. – Another contrast. Towards the end of the track – after more than 7 minutes – there is still nothing resembling a lead vocal carrying any verse or chorus. It ends with an uncategorizeable instrument playing something that's hardly notes or chords.

This all sounds like a description of something horrible and near-unlistenable, and again: From a traditional standpoint, it could very well be categorized as such. But an album like this one – much like the works of Author & Punisher – is exactly the kind of artistic statement I've been longing for. Given my downright hatred towards what music is becoming – a flat, sterile, formulaic excuse for something enjoyable that used to be written and performed by human beings on actual instruments – an outfit like Godflesh is one big, sarcastic mirror image of the obscenely inhuman characteristics of especially popular music in this accursed millennium.

Follow-up "Living/Ending" actually has a bit of groove to it, but whatever infernally cold machinery constitutes the drums here does nothing but simply hold a beat. Zero swing; zero impression of human involvement. Well, there are finally some lead vocals, but all they do is shriek singular, hostile one-syllable words under a harsh, caustic distortion filter, just like the guitar's severe distortion is grinding against one's ear drums. Neither the hint of verse/chorus interchange has much gratification, because the abrasive expression is constant, and there are zero redemptive elements. Even the ending is anti-climactically abrupt.

In the same manner, "Feral Colony" eventually reveals a hint of a couple of melodic chords, but both the tonal tension and the many intangible, inhuman sounds make the whole thing constantly disturbing rather than relatable. The intervals are unforgivingly dissonant. The percussive noises are mixed deliberately loud, all up in your face. While the vocals do clad a few delicately solitary sentences at a time into some melody, they're in the background, almost not drowning in the industrial chaos: The sonic phraseologies are remorseless by design. Just like aforementioned Author & Punisher, this is much more evil than all the black and doom metal of the world.

Godflesh is not just one big, welcome middle finger to the superficial and simple-minded mainstream; this borders on a deconstruction of music itself.

It keeps going on and on to the point of what would have been considered monotony in the hands of any other group. But this is not monotonous; this is merciless.

I could go on and try to describe the myriad of howling, high-pitched background frequencies which could be from guitars, could be from synths, or could be from actual machines. I could try to describe the sensation of the relentless, minimalistic engine hammering constituting what normal bands would categorize as drums. I could try to describe the haunting of the whispering, distorted voice. I could tell you how hypnotizing this is in all its methodically frigid, industrial monstrosity. But at the end of the day, I would still try to plaster words onto something that needs to be experienced, not verbally depicted.

I will mention, though, that +11-minute ending track "Consume Me" somehow manages to be even more cacophonous and serrated than everything up until that point. The ambient sounds are even more frightening, the rhythm even more jagged. Everything constantly starts and stops again. There's a constantly waving noise. The percussive smashes are so irregular that we're almost starting to deconstruct the very concept of a rhythm here.

The words 'art' and 'artist' get thrown around a lot. Hell, most often about creations and people who really don't deserve it. If everything's art, nothing's art. Because if art is not at least something extraordinary, why have the term in the first place?

But art is exactly what this is. Only like the very best art – and unlike any fucking brain cell-poisoning contemporary pop music – this is challenging, provocative, demanding, and cutting every imaginable edge. In a world where even metal music has woefully long begun to adopt pitch correction and cut-and-paste "drums", Godflesh are not only heavier and harder on the ears than 9 out of 10 metal bands; they are among the few most artistically pure artists in the entire world of music, and among the few artists deserving of that very label:

Artists.

Rating: 6 out of 6 – first time in this website's history!

Genre: Industrial metal
Label: Relapse
Release date: 25/9/2026
Producer: Justin Broadrick

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