At long last, Godflesh's seminal self-titled debut from 1988 is finally available on vinyl again, in the deluxe edition that this release has been in need of. This new 2014 edition of Godflesh features all eight of the tracks that appeared on the CD versions, including the bonus tracks that were never included on any of the previous vinyl releases. This version also comes in a gatefold jacket with a huge twenty-four by thirty-six inch poster of the iconic cover art, and a pair of inserts with lyrics and artwork; pressed on cloudy translucent clear vinyl with an etching on the D-side, issued in an edition of five hundred copies. Here's my old write-up for the original CD release:

Godflesh's self-titled debut is generally overshadowed by it's legendary follow-up Streetcleaner, and while the band's 1989 masterpiece is undeniably one of the greatest extreme music albums of all time, their eight song debut is just as crucial and influential on the entire spectrum of industrial metal and metallic avant-rock. This is where Justin Broadrick and G. C. Green first created their sound, a pummeling, mechanistic cross between the pounding, negatory NYC sludge of the Swans, grindcore's discordant, downtuned guitars, and the grinding, pistoning clang of factories spewing clouds of black filth into the skies. Merciless in their use of repetition, each track centers around a key riff that grinds over and over atop a pulverizing drum machine beat, with malevolent manipulated feedback and splattery drum machine breaks infiltrating the suffocating vibe. This was originally released as an EP in 1988 through the label Swordfish Records, but was later reissued around 1990 by Earache with two additional tracks added on to make this almost an hour long. Some of the bands most crucial jams are here: "Avalanche Master Song", "Ice Nerveshatter", "Veins", every one of 'em as heavy and oppressive and skullcrushing as they were the first time you heard 'em. And deep in these slow motion breakbeats and the thick guitar thud, you can hear the roots of the ethereal sludge sound that Justin would later develop into Jesu. Also of note are those two bonus tracks, "Wounds" and "Streetcleaner 2", both of which are more abstract than anything else on the album, lengthy blackened wastes of dark dubbed out noise, hypnotic tribal pounding and militant drum machine loops, distant screams and pitchshifted speaking voices, all nightmarish and surreal, very much inspired by later era Swans but doused in even greasier vats of late-80's dread. Beyond recommended.