Biography
Hailing from Birmingham, England, Godflesh earned acclaim as trailblazers in industrial metal and post-metal, shaping the sound of countless heavy acts across genres, even though the Justin Broadrick-led outfit viewed its output as an extension of post-punk traditions instead. The band launched its recorded career with a self-titled EP in 1988 before delivering the landmark album Streetcleaner late in 1989, pairing abrasive and unyielding guitar riffs with raw vocal growls over pounding drum-machine beats. Later efforts such as Pure in 1992 and Songs of Love and Hate in 1996 folded in breakbeats along with hip-hop elements that helped pave the way for nu-metal, while further explorations ventured into dub, dark ambient textures, and drum'n'bass, most notably on Us and Them from 1999. After issuing Hymns in 2001 the group disbanded, prompting Broadrick to title his subsequent shoegaze-leaning project Jesu after that album's closing track. Godflesh resumed live appearances in 2010 and resumed its trajectory with the 2014 release A World Lit Only by Fire; Post Self in 2017 drew more heavily on the ensemble's post-punk roots, and Purge in 2023 circled back to ideas first explored on Pure.
Broadrick absorbed early inspiration from heavy metal alongside experimental outfits like Can and Lou Reed's 1975 recording Metal Machine Music. In 1982 he started O.P.D. (Officially Pronounced Dead) alongside B.C. Green and Paul Neville, later changing the name to Fall of Because after a Killing Joke track and a passage in an Aleister Crowley text. The project, together with Broadrick's experimental solo endeavor Final, shared a sparsely attended bill with Napalm Death in 1984; he then joined that pioneering grindcore act briefly as guitarist, contributing to the opening side of its seminal 1987 debut Scum. Departing soon afterward, he took up drums in Head of David before exiting to assemble an even more extreme and experimental unit, reforming Fall of Because as a duo with Green plus a drum machine and adopting the name Godflesh.
The pair issued the 1988 EP Godflesh and the full-length Streetcleaner the following year, generating immediate critical interest though commercial breakthroughs enjoyed by more mainstream industrial metal acts such as Nine Inch Nails and Ministry remained out of reach, leaving Godflesh in perpetual cult status. Nevertheless, artists ranging from Metallica to Korn repeatedly cited the band as a formative influence. Through the remainder of the 1990s Godflesh maintained a steady flow of EPs and albums including Pure in 1992, Selfless in 1994, Songs of Love and Hate in 1996, and Us and Them in 1999, steadily absorbing additional flavors from dub and drum'n'bass. The career-spanning anthology In All Languages appeared in 2001, yet that same year Green departed following the arrival of Hymns, after which a proposed replacement bassist formerly of Killing Joke and Prong, Paul Raven, never materialized; Broadrick instead declared the band's dissolution in 2002. As a parting gesture he oversaw an expanded reissue in 2003 of the long-unavailable 1994 EP Messiah.
Beyond Godflesh, Broadrick operated several imprints such as Head Dirt, Lo Fibre, and Avalanche, produced additional artists, and pursued side endeavors including Final, Techno Animal, and the Sidewinder, frequently alongside Kevin Martin. He launched Jesu in 2003 as a more electronic, shoegaze-oriented continuation of the earlier work. In 2009 Broadrick revealed plans for a Godflesh reunion at Hellfest in Clisson, France, in 2010; further festival slots followed across Europe at Roadburn in Holland and Supersonic in England. The first new recording in twelve years surfaced in 2013 with a cover of Slaughter's "F.O.D." Two projects arrived in 2014: the EP Decline & Fall and the seventh studio album A World Lit Only by Fire. Post Self emerged in 2017 via Avalanche, with a cassette version on Hospital Productions, emphasizing post-punk and industrial directions over metal. The remix set New Flesh in Dub Vol. 1 and the compilation Long Live the New Flesh, which gathered the preceding two albums, the EP, and additional mixes, both appeared in 2021; Pure: Live followed in 2022, and Purge in 2023 returned to the hip-hop leanings of the original Pure.
Broadrick absorbed early inspiration from heavy metal alongside experimental outfits like Can and Lou Reed's 1975 recording Metal Machine Music. In 1982 he started O.P.D. (Officially Pronounced Dead) alongside B.C. Green and Paul Neville, later changing the name to Fall of Because after a Killing Joke track and a passage in an Aleister Crowley text. The project, together with Broadrick's experimental solo endeavor Final, shared a sparsely attended bill with Napalm Death in 1984; he then joined that pioneering grindcore act briefly as guitarist, contributing to the opening side of its seminal 1987 debut Scum. Departing soon afterward, he took up drums in Head of David before exiting to assemble an even more extreme and experimental unit, reforming Fall of Because as a duo with Green plus a drum machine and adopting the name Godflesh.
The pair issued the 1988 EP Godflesh and the full-length Streetcleaner the following year, generating immediate critical interest though commercial breakthroughs enjoyed by more mainstream industrial metal acts such as Nine Inch Nails and Ministry remained out of reach, leaving Godflesh in perpetual cult status. Nevertheless, artists ranging from Metallica to Korn repeatedly cited the band as a formative influence. Through the remainder of the 1990s Godflesh maintained a steady flow of EPs and albums including Pure in 1992, Selfless in 1994, Songs of Love and Hate in 1996, and Us and Them in 1999, steadily absorbing additional flavors from dub and drum'n'bass. The career-spanning anthology In All Languages appeared in 2001, yet that same year Green departed following the arrival of Hymns, after which a proposed replacement bassist formerly of Killing Joke and Prong, Paul Raven, never materialized; Broadrick instead declared the band's dissolution in 2002. As a parting gesture he oversaw an expanded reissue in 2003 of the long-unavailable 1994 EP Messiah.
Beyond Godflesh, Broadrick operated several imprints such as Head Dirt, Lo Fibre, and Avalanche, produced additional artists, and pursued side endeavors including Final, Techno Animal, and the Sidewinder, frequently alongside Kevin Martin. He launched Jesu in 2003 as a more electronic, shoegaze-oriented continuation of the earlier work. In 2009 Broadrick revealed plans for a Godflesh reunion at Hellfest in Clisson, France, in 2010; further festival slots followed across Europe at Roadburn in Holland and Supersonic in England. The first new recording in twelve years surfaced in 2013 with a cover of Slaughter's "F.O.D." Two projects arrived in 2014: the EP Decline & Fall and the seventh studio album A World Lit Only by Fire. Post Self emerged in 2017 via Avalanche, with a cassette version on Hospital Productions, emphasizing post-punk and industrial directions over metal. The remix set New Flesh in Dub Vol. 1 and the compilation Long Live the New Flesh, which gathered the preceding two albums, the EP, and additional mixes, both appeared in 2021; Pure: Live followed in 2022, and Purge in 2023 returned to the hip-hop leanings of the original Pure.
Albums
Singles
