When I initially bought this album, I did not know what to expect, since all I knew about Godflesh was that it had Justin Broadrick but it was very different from Napalm Death. The first time I listened to it, I noticed where the soul from Napalm Death’s music had gone. It’s all there, in Godflesh!! After Broadrick left, ND turned into a commercial, political and trendy industry of forgettable songs. Godflesh carries onward the legacy of grindcore to areas overlapping doom and industrial, to create a monument of urban depression, aggression and deep nihilism, structured and kept together by a deep sense of rationality, logic and simple hope.

The music of Godflesh is mostly mid-paced, heavy and distorted. The guitars and bass are often treated with a fair amount of feedback and the result is brutal, but very beautiful for one who has an appreciative eye for industrial darkness and coldness for reality. There is an enormous amount of awareness in this music. The riffs are simple, repeating, innovative and logical. Winter’s unique "Into Darkness" comes to mind.

This is not "industrial music" in the sense that it would be mechanically crafted without purpose or without direction. There is a definite direction. This music makes a deeper statement than any shallow, political, rebellious-for-the-sake-of-rebelling punk/grind record ever could! The bass is very powerful and audible. Godflesh might work best listened from a vinyl format. The guitar rarely performs "solos" as such. Rather, it is constantly on the move, creating strange dissonances and wailing in cold anger and fury. Drums are handled by an excellently programmed drum-machine that never suffers from an overt simplicity. The coldness of sound and the mechanic drum beats create an image of a factory, one that creates death and pain for the vulture flock of consumers to feast upon.

Hate your society and it’s supporters. They deserve it.

© 1999 black hate