3. GodfleshStreetcleaner
Of all the records on this list, this is probably the most personal of the lot as it’s so wrapped up with my youth. I used to listen to it non-stop on the headphones when I was 16 to 20 or so. It’s just got every element there. I guess for some people it’s dark but for me it’s got a total psychedelic side to it as well and is such a deeper listen than a lot of the so-called “industrial metal” stuff it got lumped in with. I think these guys were real originators. It’s proper soul crushing stuff, bleak and absolutely convincing with it, rather than being a pastiche or a posture and it seemed to encapsulate how I felt at the time. I remember reading in a fanzine at the time, probably around 1990, when there was a piece about Godflesh, and I think the author said that ‘sound becomes form as God becomes flesh’ or something similar and I thought I really could relate to that as the sound is so thick it almost feels like it has a physical presence. It is a really fine line between conveying a sense of dread and desolation as opposed to being macho or angst-ridden but, for me, Godflesh mastered the former. At least for my taste.
