GodfleshDecay

Justin K. Broadrick recorded part of the vocals with a hernia and did the mix after surgery (just owning up to that deserves a salute). Godflesh has spent years keeping the same machine grinding without trying to please anybody, and Decay is that machine's second-to-last spin. Relapse's own bio says so. Ignore whoever's slapping "final album" on the headlines, because there's one more on the way (Broadrick says this time he's going back to the guitar's tremolo arm, whatever that means?). Decay is the band's tenth album and their first on Relapse. The line-up is two people again. Guitar, machines, vocals, all the music and lyrics are Broadrick's, bass is Ben Green's. The songs come out of the Purge (2023) sessions.

The album is six tracks and 41-something minutes. The 8:45 "Master and Slave" kicks the door in. The critics' favourite is "Fear of Man". The 11:38 closer "Consume Me" is the weirdest, gutsiest shape on the record. The problem's obvious too: these songs aren't Purge's siblings, they're its twin. PopMatters gave it 7 out of 10 and tripped over exactly that closeness. Treble hears a solid wrap-up that does the career justice, but no step forward. mxdwn moans that the riffs repeat themselves, the vocals are buried and the noise sections drag on. My score is 74, and here's why. It doesn't break 80, because next to Purge it has nothing new to say and the vocals never found their spot in the mix. It doesn't drop to 65 either, because this ain't a sack of leftovers. A man whose body won't let him play this music anymore finished the job without giving an inch, and "Consume Me" takes the kind of risk you rarely see from a band this old.

If you're after something new, it's not here. If you're after Godflesh, it's all here.

While we're at it, lemme say: digital is 10 dollars, white LP 27 dollars. The 245 and 358-copy coloured deluxe vinyls sold out ages ago (collectors never sleep). If you're after something new, it's not here. If you're after Godflesh, it's all here. Buy it, but if you don't have Purge at home, start with that one first...