- Country: United Kingdom
- Style: Industrial metal
- Label: Avalanche Recordings
- Release date: 6 October 2014
Thirteen years after Hymns, Justin Broadrick and G.C. Green came back sounding as if they had never left – or rather, as if they had gone straight back to 1989. Broadrick himself called A World Lit Only by Fire “extremely minimal and very, very brutal”, and for once a musician describing his own record is not exaggerating.
This is mechanical, punishing music. “New Dark Ages” sets the pace: a slow, grinding riff, a cold, programmed-sounding beat that never blinks, Broadrick shouting over the top. Green’s bass on “Deadend” and “Shut Me Down” sounds like an engine choking. “Imperator” pairs a detuned, chugging guitar with a strangely calm chant, and “Carrion” is the closest Godflesh have come to sounding like Black Sabbath on a production line.
It is self-recorded, ten songs, nearly an hour long, and it never lets up until “Forgive Our Fathers”, where Broadrick finally lets something like sorrow into the vocal. Not an easy listen, but one of the heaviest records of 2014 and a comeback that actually means something.
Best tracks:
New Dark Ages
Imperator
Shut Me Down
Forgive Our Fathers
Author’s rating: 8.9/10
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