Godflesh
Decline & Fall

The return of Godflesh after thirteen years of forced absence.

I have to go back to 2001 and the promotional tour, about to start, of the album Hymns released just a few weeks earlier. Bassist GC Green informs his colleague Justin Broadrick of his intention to leave the band, to give it all up, to not go on tour. For Justin, it’s news as harsh as it is unexpected; a colossal blow that undermines his mental balance. He falls into a deep depression, and in the early months of 2002, he puts an end to the band. He focuses on numerous other musical projects until 2010, primarily Jesu.

Justin and GC start seeing and talking to each other again after years of total darkness. In a wholly unexpected way, Godflesh are put back together, reforming with the same historic lineup.

They enter the studio owned by their leader and founder and record an enormous amount of tracks; many will end up on the album A World Lit Only By Fire which will see dark light in October 2014 (there will be time and opportunity to also talk about this Metal-Industrial giant).

They decide to release a (dis)tasteful sonic appetizer in June of the same year; a brief EP of just four tracks.

This is the genesis of Decline & Fall.

They ask for help from no one; they do everything themselves. Production, label, recordings.

And what emerges is the usual uncompromising, disproportionate, massive wall of sound.

Justin uses an eight-string guitar to exponentially increase the auditory damage.

The megalomaniac, omnipresent bass of GC provides its monstrous contribution.

Aseptic, congesting Drum Machine makes the merciless flow of each chilling minute even more claustrophobic.

It’s an EP that looks back in time; wanting to hark back to the first releases of Godflesh.

Let’s forget about the Dub and electronic turn of the records from the second half of the nineties.

Decline & Fall is the legitimate heir to the disorienting molten metal flows that harken back to the Industrial masterpieces of Streetcleaner and especially Pure.

There is no breathing, no respite of any kind; Godflesh grant no pauses. Focused on reclaiming the scepter as masters of a musical genre they helped create and spread in the first part of their career.

Obsessive and obsessing notes as dark as the black bottom of an ocean abyss.

Glacial, repetitive, dense, deep, shocking as in the opening “Ringer.” Six minutes of true nightmare even for someone like me who is used to certain lashes.

The brief “Dogbite” is the work’s best-executed piece. It’s GC’s bass that rises to prominence; Justin follows with his dry, grating, primitive vocals. Meanwhile, his guitar draws circular, downtuned, repeated notes until the end.

The shocking “Playing With Fire” follows: once more we’re around six minutes in total duration. Minutes of total mental disturbance... but they could also extend for an hour... nothing would change. You come out in pieces, collapsed, bloodless... and the morbid title track is still missing.

Ad Maiora.