I’ve talked before about my school friend Andrew, the metal pusher and guru of my early days in metal. One day during a free class, we’re chatting and he asked if I’d listened to Godflesh and I’d said no. I knew they had a reputation for being slow and evil, so I was interested, but I was not ready for what I got. I slipped the borrowed tape into my walkman on the walk to the bus after school, then pressed play. I don’t if the planet shook as the initial riff hit, but I will swear to this day that it did.
I’m not sure there’s ever been an album opener as hard hitting as Like Rats, and I’m pretty sure the one – two of Like Rats and Christbait Rising has never been topped. As your head is reeling from those two tracks, the third, Plup starts and is somehow even more aggressive, without ever speeding up. And somehow, Godflesh keeps up this intensity for the whole album without it becoming unlistenable. Each song has its own hooks that keep you invested. It’s just that these hooks are more Cenobite than pop hooks. I mean, I’d never heard anything like it before, but honestly, nothing had ever sounded quite like this before. Streetcleaner meshes Black Sabbath, 1980’s era Swans and the bleakness of the early Cure records to make a noise that would grind its way through metal and industrial music. This is legendary stuff and Justin, the songwriter, was 19 when he wrote this, which is crazy. The fact that this was the second album he was involved with that changed metal at that age is just mind boggling. (Napalm Death’s Scum was the first. He was 16)
It’s hard to describe just how aggressive this album sounds, especially on the unofficial Earache remaster. You turn this album up and it will punch you in the face. There is no easing back here, this is 52 minutes in hell, brutal and punishing. This is pain and rage clutched tight and stared down. This is locking eyes with the abyss and screaming back.
Nothing hits like this album.
Nothing.
https://lynkify.in/song/like-rats/snNWytEo
The ways of exile 