Godflesh – “Post Self” [Album Review]

It seems almost no time has gone since we last heard the Birmingham machine metal gods with A World Lit Only by Fire, but they have indeed been busy. There’s not a second of dallying as this latest opus, already two years in the building, makes its thunderous entrance with the title track. If this is what the band had in mind by getting away from metal to showcase their industrial and post-punk origins, it truly may be their finest yet.

It has to be said right now, to all other bands out there who consider themselves heavy: you are not, not by a long shot my friends. One listen to the opening seconds of such tracks as “Parasite” and “In Your Shadow” will put a quick end to that delusion. On a rare note, this group has never disappointed me with any release of theirs, and this is most definitely Godflesh at their very best.

This album encompasses the work of a very mature and self-aware duo; the style reaches back to pre-Streetcleaner times, and, in strange ways, some tracks (“Mirror of Finite Light” and “Be God”) are even like nascent Scorn. Fans of this band from early on will understand the texture of moods and atmospheres at play here; the complexity of the simplicity, as it were, and they should adore Post Self.

The opener and title track, “Post Self”.

Post Self Track Listing:

01. Post Self
02. Parasite
03. No Body
04. Mirror of Finite Light
05. Be God
06. The Cyclic End
07. Pre Self
08. Mortality Sorrow
09. In Your Shadow
10. The Infinite End

Run Time: 46:41
Release Date: November 17, 2017
Record Label: Avalanche Recordings