Purge

Purge is intended as a continuation of the concepts of Pure, Godfleshs second album, which they performed at the 2013 Roadburn Festival and released as Pure: Live in 2022. Recognized as one of the first post-metal releases, 1992s Pure expanded on the bleak, drum machine-driven sound of earlier records like the mighty Streetcleaner, adding breakbeats and samples, resulting in a mutated form of industrial hip-hop which would give rise to nu-metal later in the decade. Purge is heavier on breaks and electronics than Pure, and it feels more sudden and immediate, forgoing the older albums dark ambient experimentation and extended track lengths. Justin Broadrick, who has been diagnosed with autism and PTSD, has felt like an outsider his entire life, and creating music as part of Godflesh serves as a form of therapeutic release for him. "Nero" opens the album with menacing loops, brick walls of downtuned guitars, and Broadricks anguished shouting. "Army of Non" similarly channels the hip-hop-influenced Pure sound, but with heavier, more swinging grooves. Moving beyond the early 90s, the rocket-fueled "Land Lord" is closer to the guitar-driven big beat which populated action movie soundtracks and electronica compilations near the turn of the millennium. "Permission" is psychedelic drumnbass, with skittering breaks and a hypnotic bassline spiraling along with Broadricks largely clean vocals. "The Father" is like a more muscular, riff-heavy version of Broadricks shoegaze-leaning work as Jesu, with dubby, spaced-out moaning about having "one way out." Broadrick adopts an almost comically scary growl for the bludgeoning "Mythology of Self," and reverts to his softer, more dazed voice for "You Are the Judge, the Jury, and the Executioner," the mesmerizing dirge that ends the album. ~ Paul Simpson