Over three plus decades, Godflesh have existed as an undisputed metal trailblazer, perhaps even a genre unto themselves. And now, 25 years after an uncertain hiatus that nearly scuttled the band and 38 years since their inception, Broadrick and bassist-at-arms Ben Green have set out to mercilessly crush this cold world with their tenth and penultimate album: Decay. With this album, Godflesh unleash an even bolder, bleaker series of sounds and today they’ve shared the record’s vicious opening track “Master and Slave.”

“Music, for me, is rarely complete,” says  Broadrick, “but it has to reach a point where enough is enough. Creatively, there has to be self-discipline. One has to end it.”  Broadrick is primarily referring to the nebulous process of writing and arranging songs into their various potential shapes, but he could just as easily be describing Godflesh’s imminent conclusion. Decay arrives shortly after Broadrick released a public statement about major abdominal surgery he underwent earlier this year. “Fortunately, all of the recordings for ‘Decay’ were completed long before the surgery, vocals included… although the back end of a couple of songs were recorded with the hernia itself, and that was a struggle.”

he artist adds; “I was already aware that the Godflesh shout, so to speak, was exacerbating the hernia greatly, as was every Godflesh performance in the lead-up to the surgery once the hernia appeared, and the hernia was mostly caused by year upon year of shouting in Godflesh. The album was mixed post-surgery, and while I was still in some pain and considerable discomfort, but fortunately Godflesh is generally me expressing my pain, albeit [usually] mental, philosophical and existential, whereas this was physical pain.”

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat