GODFLESH Announces First Album In Six Years, 'Purge'

English industrial metal pioneers GODFLESH will release their first new material in six years, "Purge", on June 9. The follow-up to 2017's critically acclaimed "Post Self" sees GODFLESH revisiting and updating the concepts of "Pure" (1992),as well as bringing a whole host of new dirges and laments. Among the many layers of dirt, "Purge" mangles 1990s hip-hop grooves and puts them through the GODFLESH filter to create something futuristic in style — and utterly unique.

Both minimal and maximal, GODFLESH delivers alien grooves that swing while also retaining the psychedelic, bad trip edge with layer upon layer of filth and heaviness that the band has always been known for. This is, and always has been, feel-bad music.

The title alone — "Purge" — references directly how songwriter and creator Justin K. Broadrick utilizes GODFLESH's music as a temporary relief from his diagnosed autism and PTSD. It's the next stage in a journey he has been on since he began creating music, feeling alone and like an outsider in any scene or group, from childhood through to adulthood. The music of GODFLESH gives Broadrick the means to express a lifetime of feeling misunderstood and overwhelmed by hyper-sensitivity. The band is the vehicle to provide some sense of catharsis and transcendence; a way of communicating overload, as well as the constant disenchantment at the human condition, and man's abuse of power and the systems that chain us. "Purge" references the cycle of horror that man always has and always will put us through; those in positions of power revel in the infliction of pain and horror upon individuals — in the name of their religion, their power, their money, their flags…

"Purge" track listing:

01. Nero
02. Land Lord
03. Army Of Non
04. Lazarus Leper
05. Permission
06. The Father
07. Mythology Of Self
08. You Are The Judge, The Jury, And The Executioner

A digital-only single of the opening song "Nero", coupled with three remixes, will be released on April 3, 2023.

GODFLESH — consisting of Broadrick and Ben Green — augmented by Machines, is seen as a pivotal entity in the world of "heavy" music, impacting entire subcultures within the scene since the band's inception in 1988.

GODFLESH has been credited as being one of the first bands to cross old British industrial music with down-tuned, primitive and minimal metal, accidentally pioneering the "industrial metal" sound — yet reaches far beyond the confines of the genre. The band is widely regarded as a cultural icon, and its impact can be felt across generations of heavy music, both mainstream and underground.

GODFLESH will perform at select shows worldwide and key festivals, including headlining Birmingham's Supersonic Festival and Austin, Texas's Oblivion Fest around the release date of the album.

Image courtesy of Obscene Extreme Fest