Purge

Six years after the challenging, experimental Post Self, Justin K. Broadrick and Ben Green released the most overtly backward-looking Godflesh album to date. Purge came 30 years after 1992’s Pure, and deliberately sought to revisit that album’s ideas. Most notable among these was the embrace of hip-hop beats, as opposed to the rudimentary pounding of Godflesh’s self-titled debut EP and 1989’s Streetcleaner. Purge is a crowd-pleasing record by Godflesh standards, with its first three tracks “Nero,” “Land Lord,” and “Army of Non” crashing through the wall like a remotely piloted bulldozer, grinding guitars laid atop surprisingly funky beats. In the album’s second half, an eerie gentleness emerges on “The Father,” which with its clean vocals and airy mix could almost be a song by Broadrick’s other main band, Jesu. The album ends with two ultra-heavy dirges: the grimy “Mythology of Self,” on which he croaks out the lyrics one word at a time, seemingly through gritted teeth, and the slightly lighter but nearly eight-minute “You are the Judge, the Jury, and the Executioner,” which has a dreamlike, shimmering quality that recalls the Pure track “Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” This album isn’t just a companion piece to its spiritual predecessor — Broadrick and Green are still intent on moving Godflesh forward rather than rumbling in place. But those who consider the 1992 album the band’s masterpiece (raises hand) will be very pleased by this follow-up.