Godflesh
Streetcleaner
[Earache]
1. Like Rats
2. Christbait Rising
3. Pulp
4. Dream Long Dead
5. Head Dirt
6. Devastator/Mighty Trust Krusher
7. Life Is Easy
8. Streetcleaner
9. Locust Furnace
*10. Tiny Tears
*11. Wound
*12. Dead Head
*13. Suction
* Extra tracks
(playing time 66:29)
Let's clear something up about the tracklisting first: as opposed to the vinyl release, the CD release cut track 6, "Devastator/Mighty Trust Krusher" actually in two, so the CD counts 14 tracks instead of 13, and "Life Is Easy" is track no. 8 on the actual CD.
After this smallest of flaws one thing remains: Godflesh - Streetcleaner, a totally tripping blend of metal and industrial, of a very oppressive atmosphere. Most tracks feature mid-tempo riffage, with a drum computer leading the song with a repetitive throb, like the ever-present pulse of an urban nightmare. For this music paints a nightmare, the nightmare of Justin Broadrick, founding member of the band.
Like I said, the music is mid-tempo, not really brutal yet oppressively heavy! The guitars are somewhat like Black Sabbath (and I only mean this in a kind of superficial sense, they have the same kind of "heaviness") and quite repetitive. Sometimes a lead guitar picks up to weave a web of dissonant ambience, but this can hardly be called a "solo". The same riffs are looped over and over again while Broadricks painful voice repeats simple text lines (e.g. "you breed like rats") to great effect. The drum computer creates a somewhat industrial atmosphere but this stuff is really different from something like Ministry, or Throbbing Gristle. It's not focused on the electronics, neither is it focused on heaviness. Sometimes (like in "Life Is Easy") it's kind of doomy and perhaps even ambient-like (listen to those wonderful accompanying bass loops), as if the sheer anger (for this is a very angry album) directed _at_ everyday life has been accepted and blended into the state _of_ everyday life. Sometimes menacing ("Like Rats"), sometimes very faint ("Head Dirt"), often nauseating ("Streetcleaner"), always oppressive, heavy, angry. Clearly, this is a very intense album, a testimony to our state: a selfless machine slowly pounding us into the mold of automated "consciousness".
As to the bonus tracks: these are taken from the Tiny Tears EP. These tracks have a somewhat faster pace and are catchier, easier to "get". They're still good, but somewhat the official tracks. An interesting addition.
IMO the lyrics are essential to this album (they can be found at http://www.godflesh.com) but actually the small piece of text in the inlay serves well to that: a composition of different elements of the lyrics telling the same story as the music: flesh crumbles in the real world.
© 2000 dwaallicht
2. Christbait Rising
3. Pulp
4. Dream Long Dead
5. Head Dirt
6. Devastator/Mighty Trust Krusher
7. Life Is Easy
8. Streetcleaner
9. Locust Furnace
*10. Tiny Tears
*11. Wound
*12. Dead Head
*13. Suction
* Extra tracks
(playing time 66:29)
Let's clear something up about the tracklisting first: as opposed to the vinyl release, the CD release cut track 6, "Devastator/Mighty Trust Krusher" actually in two, so the CD counts 14 tracks instead of 13, and "Life Is Easy" is track no. 8 on the actual CD.
After this smallest of flaws one thing remains: Godflesh - Streetcleaner, a totally tripping blend of metal and industrial, of a very oppressive atmosphere. Most tracks feature mid-tempo riffage, with a drum computer leading the song with a repetitive throb, like the ever-present pulse of an urban nightmare. For this music paints a nightmare, the nightmare of Justin Broadrick, founding member of the band.
Like I said, the music is mid-tempo, not really brutal yet oppressively heavy! The guitars are somewhat like Black Sabbath (and I only mean this in a kind of superficial sense, they have the same kind of "heaviness") and quite repetitive. Sometimes a lead guitar picks up to weave a web of dissonant ambience, but this can hardly be called a "solo". The same riffs are looped over and over again while Broadricks painful voice repeats simple text lines (e.g. "you breed like rats") to great effect. The drum computer creates a somewhat industrial atmosphere but this stuff is really different from something like Ministry, or Throbbing Gristle. It's not focused on the electronics, neither is it focused on heaviness. Sometimes (like in "Life Is Easy") it's kind of doomy and perhaps even ambient-like (listen to those wonderful accompanying bass loops), as if the sheer anger (for this is a very angry album) directed _at_ everyday life has been accepted and blended into the state _of_ everyday life. Sometimes menacing ("Like Rats"), sometimes very faint ("Head Dirt"), often nauseating ("Streetcleaner"), always oppressive, heavy, angry. Clearly, this is a very intense album, a testimony to our state: a selfless machine slowly pounding us into the mold of automated "consciousness".
As to the bonus tracks: these are taken from the Tiny Tears EP. These tracks have a somewhat faster pace and are catchier, easier to "get". They're still good, but somewhat the official tracks. An interesting addition.
IMO the lyrics are essential to this album (they can be found at http://www.godflesh.com) but actually the small piece of text in the inlay serves well to that: a composition of different elements of the lyrics telling the same story as the music: flesh crumbles in the real world.
© 2000 dwaallicht