Godflesh

My mother used to nag me constantly about the music I listened to, calling it "nothing but noise." Well, in this case, she is right--Godflesh is PURE noise. Definitely an acquired taste...but oh how tasty it can be!

There's two exclusive Godflesh tracks on the Pathological Compilation, which I *finally* located a copy of; they also do the song "Zero the Hero" on Masters of Misery: A Tribute to Black Sabbath, and the song "For Those About to Rock" on an AC/DC tribute which I don't have yet.

"Godflesh"

  1. "Avalanche Monster Song" (5:13)
  2. "Veins" (4:30)
  3. "Godhead" (5:01)
  4. "Spinebender" (5:07)
  5. "Weak Flesh" (4:23)
  6. "Ice Nerveshatter" (6:31)
  7. "Wounds" (13:06)
  8. "Streetcleaner 2" (8:41)

I owned a bunch of Godflesh CDs before even knowing this one existed. How nice it is to find more music from a band you love! At first I thought it was their second album, judging by the "Streetcleaner 2" track...but as it turns out that one and "Wounds" are remixes from Streetcleaner, and were stuck on here as bonus tracks when the CD was reissued.

"Streetcleaner"

  1. "Like Rats" (4:26)
  2. "Christbait Rising" (6:58)
  3. "Pulp" (4:15)
  4. "Dream Long Dead" (5:17)
  5. "Head Dirt" (6:07)
  6. "Devastator/Mighty Trust Krusher" (8:45)
  7. "Life is Easy" (4:48)
  8. "Streetcleaner" (6:41)
  9. "Locust Furnace" (4:43)
  10. "Tiny Tears" (3:22)
  11. "Wound" (3:05)
  12. "Dead Head" (4:06)
  13. "Suction" (3:24)

This was the first Godflesh CD I bought, after seeing an advertisement for a concert featuring them with Napalm Death and Nocturnus, I thought I'd check them out. YIKES!!! Slow, growly, dissonant, dischordant, anti-musical, practically incomprehensible...at first I was thinking what else I could have done with the money I spent for it. It took a LONG time to get used to, and now I advise everyone I tell about this band, do NOT start with Streetcleaner, this is advanced Godflesh!

Oh, another thing I should mention, dropping acid while listening to Godflesh is also a BAAAAD idea. Trust me, I know this!

"Slavestate"

  1. "Slavestate" (3:56)
  2. "Perfect Skin" (7:36)
  3. "Someone Somewhere Scorned" (4:46)
  4. "Meltdown" (5:46)
  5. "Slavestate (Radio Slave)" (4:56)
  6. "Slavestate Total State Mix" (8:28)
  7. "Perfect Skin Dub" (12:14)
  8. "Slateman" (5:55)
  9. "Wound '91" (4:25)

I was stoked when the song "Slavestate" actually showed up as a video on MTv! And what a perfect video it was, nothing but swirling images and plasma-like colors to a hip-hop tune from Hades. "Perfect Skin", "Someone Somewhere...", "Meltdown" and "Slateman" are also all fine tracks, but the rest are all remixes & rehashes which I'm fond of at all.

"Pure"

  1. "Spite" (4:30)
  2. "Mothra" (4:31)
  3. "I Wasn't Born to Follow" (7:22)
  4. "Predominance" (6:15)
  5. "Pure" (5:02)
  6. "Monotremata" (9:20)
  7. "Baby Blue Eyes" (4:38)
  8. "Don't Bring Me Flowers" (6:48)
  9. "Love, Hate (Slugbaiting)" (9:57)
  10. "Pure II" (21:04)

The ultimate Godflesh CD, and the one I recommend to everyone starting out with the band. The hard-pounding "Mothra" was an unlikely hit on Headbanger's Ball, and "Pure" has a surprisingly funky rhythm as well. But the real beauty here is "I Wasn't Born to Follow", which I loved so much I used to program my player to play that one song OVER and OVER again. (To much the annoyance of everyone else in the house, to be sure!) I can also call myself a true Godflesh fanatic because I have actually listened to "Pure II" all the way through!

"Cold World" (single)

  1. "Cold World" (5:26)
  2. "Nihil" (5:54)
  3. "Nihil"--total belief mix (5:38)
  4. "Nihil"--no belief mix (5:36)

This CD single came out shortly before Selfless, and I passed on buying it thinking it would appear on the new album. WRONG!!! I kicked myself for the longest time, and begged my friends to watch for it, willing to pay $15 or more...and then one day, there it was, in the used bins for a whopping FORTY-NINE CENTS!! Jeez, the worries I get myself into...

"Selfless"

  1. "Xnoybis" (5:54)
  2. "Bigot" (4:34)
  3. "Black Boned Angel" (6:47)
  4. "Anything is Mine" (3:59)
  5. "Empyreal" (6:02)
  6. "Crush My Soul" (4:27)
  7. "Body Dome Light" (5:30)
  8. "Toll" (4:14)
  9. "Heartless" (5:32)
  10. "Mantra" (7:27)
  11. "Go Spread Your Wings" (23:50)

I didn't like the direction they took on this album, shit it even sounds like real music. :) Not that it's bad, it's just too damn accessible. "Go Spread Your Wings" is the most dischordant it gets here. This is also the CD where you finally get to see what the guys in the band look like...........:

"Merciless" (EP)

  1. "Merciless" (6:17)
  2. "Blind" (7:16)
  3. "Unworthy" (7:14)
  4. "Flowers" (7:34)

I don't suppose I mentioned my brother's taste in music--he likes EVERYTHING, from the music I like as well to stuff such as gangsta rap & 10,000 Maniacs, which I HATE. It took me a long time to find something I like which he can't stand. You guessed it: Godflesh. So whenever I'm fed up with his R.E.M. junk I just pull out this little EP, which is unquestionably the least accessible work the band has ever released. "Flowers" (a rehacked version of Pure's "Don't Bring Me Flowers") has the musical consistency of fingernails scraping against a blackboard. It even gives ME a headache to listen to!

"Songs of Love and Hate"

  1. "Wake" (4:19)
  2. "Sterile Prophet" (4:18)
  3. "Circle of Shit" (4:53)
  4. "Hunter" (4:39)
  5. "Gift from Heaven" (7:45)
  6. "Amoral" (4:56)
  7. "Angel Domain" (3:55)
  8. "Kingdom Come" (5:34)
  9. "Time, Death and Wastefulness" (6:12)
  10. "Frail" (5:24)
  11. "Almost Heaven" (5:41)

When this CD came out, I went and bought it right away without waiting for it to show up used. It's always a gamble when I do that, since usually what happens is I find 12 used copies in mint condition the next time I go shopping. Got lucky here, haven't seen it once. I was worried about the direction the band was taking after Selfless, but as soon as "Wake" pounded through the speakers there was nothing more to worry about! This is prime Godflesh material, nearly as good, if not better, than Pure. I haven't listened to it enough to recognize each and every song, but "Sterile Prophet" and "Frail" are certainly standout tracks here.

"Us and Them"

  1. "I, Me, Mine" (5:20)
  2. "Us and Them" (5:56)
  3. "Endgames" (4:56)
  4. "Witchhunt" (5:11)
  5. "Whose Truth is Your Truth" (5:03)
  6. "Defiled" (5:29)
  7. "Bittersweet" (4:34)
  8. "Nail" (4:09)
  9. "Descent" (5:38)
  10. "Control Freak" (5:37)
  11. "The Internal" (6:33)
  12. "Live to Lose" (5:39)

The long-awaited follow-up to Songs of Love and Hate -- and I waited an extra six months to find a used copy. Don't know if I'm losing interest in the band, or if the band is losing interest in themselves, because this CD simply doesn't GRAB me like their previous releases have. It's kind of a throwback to Streetcleaner -- very dissonant & ambient-sounding, but it just doesn't have the HOOKS that made their earlier albums so incredible (with the exception of Selfless, of course.) "Bittersweet" and "The Internal" are great tracks with catchy riffs, but other songs like "Defiled" sound like Justin wrote them while sitting on the can. I've heard it rumored that this will be Godflesh's final album, and in a way I hope it's true, because the band is truly starting to lose their edge.

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