Godflesh - Love and Hate in Dub
Review: It takes a band with bravery and integrity to do what Godflesh did with their last failure of an album, "Songs of Love and Hate." SoLaH drifted in the alt-rock/industrial territory previously occupied by Fudge Tunnel and Pitch Shifter, and in doing so dulled the natural flair of this band and started the production of careerist rock music. Borrowing heavily from that album, but twisting its riffs into blurred sound and utilizing its immense background noise and noise-guitar-lead quotient as dominant themes over a slow building but enigmatic dub, Godflesh turn their underground music into something radio-friendly but grinding in its distorted bass, guitar and periodic vocal diatribe.
This is not rocket science for either of its host genres, but the dub and underground extremity mixture here is an easy listen with hints of musical profundity that credit the ordinary listening experience of dub with a new lucidity. Structure pokes its head in with nods to the harmony of feedback oscillations styles of previous epics. Of the later Godflesh albums, this is the strongest effort they have put forth as it is closest to what J. Broadrick achieved in Techno Animal between Godflesh albums, and what this band of musicians seem to desire as their future.