Bites Hard
The drum machine clicks and pounds indefinitely with mechanical dedication, the guitars of Broadrick and Green set the tone both literally and figuratively with minimal clutter; the music is harsh and compact. It's Godflesh all right - back thirteen years after their last recording Hymns.
Actual good not just 'thank God that wasn't crap' comeback records are becoming more common place these days. What with Carcass delivering the brutal and enjoyable Surgical Steel last year and many others ranging from Swans to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Nine Inch Nails doing the same it leaves only Axl Rose who had a real stinker after a long public lay-off. Given that, it was obvious that Godflesh would come up with the goods or was it? Despite getting back together in 2010 there has been no new material in the intervening period and Broadrick's other projects such as the post-rock Jesu haven't touched Godflesh's rugged urban terrain. Either way this EP stands up well against the legend and hefty back catalogue.
The four songs on Decline and Fall begin with a crackle that bleeds into the downtuned roughness of Broadrick's guitar and Green's thumping bass. This minimal amount of instrumentation nevertheless fills the space between your ears – it's a heavy grind that sticks rigidly to its basic foundations. Foundations that have been used liberally by the likes of Fear Factory over the years so will be familiar to even those for whom Godflesh are new. The bass on Dogbite is huge as Broadrick bares his teeth at the microphone, whereas Playing With Fire has a little more space between the alternating wallops of guitar and ambient drone but is a little less interesting for it somehow. Title track and Decline and Fall's closer is the most aggressive and restless track on the EP twitching all the way to an abrupt end.
Where this points us in terms of content of the to-be-released full length album only the band know but it only took four songs to convince us and if we are to take pointers in terms of attitude and commitment it should be an essential Godflesh listen.