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“How many Mondays that serve me with evil, I know not. / My empires has no limits.”
Metal Monday vol. 45
I’m trying to get back to numbering these posts, and though “I know not” for sure, I’m pretty sure we’re on 45 here.
Today, an Earache classic: Godflesh’s - Street Cleaner. You probably know this album even if you’re not much of a metal fan, because it’s been adopted by hardcore, indie rock, and post rock, fans alike as an acceptable piece of kill your mother type music on a label best known for being the original home of bands like Napalm Death, Entombed, and Carcass. Unlike those groups though, Godflesh is a band beloved by idiots who think a record can only have artistic merit if it involves brooding things like… questioning oneself and other such difficult ruminations on humanity. This is no fault of Godflesh (on this album Justin Broadrick and GC Green, with some additional contributions from Paul Neville), but it gets kind of rough when one record is appropriated by so many bespectacled dorks and hateful mortains. Of course to make up for it, my roommate who spends 2-3 hours of the day at the gym, and wakes up everyday at 6 AM, wears a Godflesh sweatshirt while he watches the discovery channel and eats chicken. So yea, there are cool people that like this cool band too. But enough about that. What’s the appeal?
Street Cleaner is basically a post death metal version of Big Black “Songs About Fucking” + Swans “Cop”. Mechanical drum machine smashing, guitars that sound like a steel mill, deep dark reverb drenching everything, and bleak, miserable lyrics. The vocal approach is deep and guttural, and that, combined with Broaderick’s ex-Napalm Death status, was enough to get them a featured player status on some of the major Earache tours of the time (I think the US version of the Grindcrusher tour). Maybe because of that, Godflesh never made another album like Streetcleaner, preferring to experiment with, ahem, “electronica”, “shoegaze” and “dub” elements on most of their subsequent recordings. Here though they’re all monolithic, monochromatic focus. Each track works a slow crawling tempo against a wall of guitars. Sometimes there’s notes, and sometimes there’s just feedback and scraping noises. It’s oppressive, and harsh, like a prison planet run by robots in the horrible and inevitable future. For all the metal bands that refer to themselves as harsh or cold, I don’t think there’s any colder than Godflesh on this lp. They’re a lifeless, emotionless void that will envelope you. It’s a simple formula, but it can’t be stated enough how perfectly they do it here.
john peel can’t stand this record
would love to hear him talking about it. he gets a pass for making reek of putrefaction his #1 record of ‘88 or whatever it was.
bought this solely because there was an ad for it in Metal Maniacs. was disappointed. never gave a second listen. they played the “campaign for musical destruction” tour. i didnt go. andy healy got thown out twice for stage diving and got a green bruise on his thigh.
during the peel sessions they did for this record, all of his commentary comes off like he wouldn’t even call it music
in the late-80’s/early 90’s i was totally into the whole Earache scene cos the HC world outside of Japan or Colombia just totally sucked.yeah, there were a few exceptions(insert your favorite band names from that time here), but in general it was a totally shitty HC world to live in.as a result, my love for fast & agressive music got me involved with a lot of stupid death & black metal bullshit. the only saving grace of this was the tape traders of this genre had stocks of Japan HC like you wouldnt believe, so i guess it wasnt completely worthless on my end. anyway, back to Godflesh…buying a (then) brand-new copy of the “GrindCrusher” comp LP at a local HMV outlet while crashing in a hostel just north-west of Hyde Park in London, i was already familiar with almost all of the bands. except for Godflesh. id never heard of them at that point(july 1989), and the “street cleaner” track totally blew me away…off to Japan for a few months afterwards…none of their stuff to be found there, either…who were these crushing dudes?? was this an all-star band incognito due to label contracts, or something?? nobody knew. when i finally got back home, a friend of mine(Nick; who was/is Pale Creation) came over with this LP…we spent the whole night drinking & playing it over & over again…i never had it on Vinyl, but the Combat CD with the extra tracks eventually made its way into my collection, and i was mesmerised by the extra tracks…”Suction” & “Dead Head” totally killed & still do!! when the GrindCrusher tour came thru Cleveland a bit later, i went just to see Godflesh. i could give a flying FUKK about shit like Nocturnus, Napalm Death was touring the totally bullshit “Harmony Corruption” LP line-up, and i wont even mention how much i hated (& still do HATE) Morbid Angel…Godflesh played 2nd…i was expecting to see God…i didnt. they played as a 2-piece & drum machine, and it sounded like someone was just doing Karaoke to some LP tracks…yawn…my old friend (Kevin Ries [R.I.P. of Idiot Humans fame]) was there to see them cos he was totally into their whole pre-Godflesh Head Of David thing. he was just as disappointed as i was. he got to hang out with them & told me about how disillusioned the band was with this package tour & all the horror stories they told him…no surprise then when they got dropped/outright quit this tour in Chicago a few days later… i still snag Godflesh CDs from tha bargain/cut-out bins of shitty shops at my local mall every now & then. theyre definately not content to sit still with their style, but theyve done nothing to ever repeat the lightning that striked on this LP, or at least keep it interesting…such a shame…