Album Review: Godflesh – Decay
Reviewed by Patrick O’Reilly
“Repent, for the end is nigh!” Could be the message accompanying this album. Godflesh will soon cease to exist, and extreme metal will have lost one of its most important voices. The process of making and performing this bands content has changed band mastermind Justin Broadrick both physically and mentally, and following abdominal surgery Broadrick has revealed that the band is now “Physically impossible” for him to continue with and has now been “rendered useless”
As we set up to mourn an irreplaceable pinnacle of extreme metal though we are able to bask in the warm glow of ‘Decay’ the bands tenth and penultimate album, and any fears that Broadrick is going out quietly with a whimper are well and truly denounced as ‘Decay’ is pure, unrelenting Godflesh!
Opener ‘Master and Slave’ opens with a crushing riff that doesn’t let up for the entirety of the track, pulsing with industrial menace and harsh vocals. It is a pummeling way to open the album and a statement of intent from Broadrick.
Track 2 ‘Living Ending’ is a throwback to the band’s early material. Drum machine delivering an artificial, alien beat over which the pounding bass of Ben Green hammers out pure rhythm. Add to this confrontational vocals that seem to be there to challenge and intimidate, and you have a classic Godflesh vintage.
Third track ‘Feral Colony’ ups the pace and sounds like the kind of thing that would be playing in a cyber-goth club in a William Gibson novel. Kind of like techno if it was slowed down a bit and made REALLY heavy.
‘Fear of Man’ mixes spikes of shrill guitar and synth with an almost transcendent vocal approach, as close to spiritual as this album gets, while fifth track ‘Fodder’ is back to the grinding bass and crushing intensity.
Album closer, Consume Me’ is an 11-minute-long beast of a track, ridiculously heavy, slow and claustrophobic.
‘Decay’ is more than a statement, it is an epitaph, a final fuck you to the music industry from a band that never compromised on its vision. It has the weight of years of pain and sorrow, exorcised through this music, yet in its lighter moments, and they are fleeting, still manages to raise you to the heavens. All of this and we still have another album to come!
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