Godflesh have released «Master And Slave», the opening track of «Decay». The record is out on September 25 via Relapse Records and is the band’s tenth album — and their penultimate one, as Justin Broadrick has said.
The six tracks on «Decay» come from the same recordings as 2023’s «Purge». «”Decay” was born from the same sessions», Broadrick explained. «It was a huge pool of songs. I picked whatever suited what I wanted to achieve with “Purge”, with the intention of putting the rest out as a new album within a year. In the end two years passed, while I was looking at labels, so I wouldn’t have to put them out myself. The recordings were ready, but as always I changed a lot of things when I went back to them».
It isn’t the first time he’s worked this way: the 2014 EP «Decline & Fall» was made from material left over from the sessions for «A World Lit Only By Fire», which came out four months later.
In March Broadrick announced that Godflesh will not play live again. Three weeks earlier he had undergone open surgery for an inguinal hernia, which he said was close to becoming an emergency and required a six-centimeter incision instead of a laparoscopic one. The cause was the way he sings. «If I keep performing and screaming the way I do with Godflesh, I risk new hernias and completely rupturing my abdominal wall», he had stated.
The «Decay» recordings had been completed well before the surgery, vocals included. «The end of two songs was written with the hernia, and it was a struggle», he admitted. «I already knew that the Godflesh scream was making it worse».
See also: Jesu – live in Athens | NOTHINGNESS – Godslaughter.
