Cable Regime - Assimilate & destroy (1992)

After their first full length album, Life in the house of the enemy, both Cable Regime and Permis De Construire Deutschland were interested in the idea of a remix album.

After recieveing the prepayment from PDCD, Cable Regime once again set foot into Avalanche Studio and began remixing Assimilate & destroy, a track previously featured on their first full length, with Justin Broadrick.

Four different remixes and an untitled medley, comprised of the previous four remixes, placed end-to-end in a single continuous track, found their way onto the EP. With funky remix titles such as "Open sore in the pit of hell mix" and "Stupid vulgar son of a bitch mix" one surely can't go wrong?

As this happens to be the first material by Cable Regime that graced my ears, I'm simply going to answer "Of course not. Psychedelic and drugged out industrial rock remixes can never be wrong". While looping this disc in the background, I recommend digging into "The naked lunch" by Burroughs. A rather confusing, but growing experience.

Hope you enjoy!

"Systematic, systematic world control. Magnetic. Genetic. To match your soul."

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(95+34MB/320CBR)

Cable Regime - Life in the house of the enemy (1992)

Welcome back after a short summer break. Everything should be returning back to normal during the next few weeks, and updates should start dropping more frequently.

With the welcome out of the way, there's been a few requests for more Cable Regime waiting in my inbox. As I aim to please, we'll be going through the rest of the Regime discography that I have at hand in irregular intervals. We'll begin the series with the first full length, Life in the house of the enemy.

As the story goes, Permis De Construire Deutschland wanted to release an album by Cable Regime, and after the boys gave their OK, they got and spent most of their prepayment, presumably on something that had nothing to do with the recording process whatsoever, unless we're talking about an inspirational process here, and were left with a few rehearsal tracks and no full length album.

Luckily fellow Birminghamian Justin Broadrick was in possession of an 8-track and soon the Regime was booked in Rich Bitch Studios for a recording session. Steve Hough recalls the album "(...) was recorded pretty much live as I remember, at a rehearsal room using boundary mics". After a final mixing and production job at Broadrick's own Avalanche Studio, the album was ready to be released.

After this rather drawn-out history lesson, I'd better let you dig into the music without any further diversions or lengthy "reviews". Enjoy this fatal concoction of Big Black's drum machine fury combined with the Godfleshesque howling guitar and feedback attacks, this is psychedelic and noisy industrial rock in it's purest form. Highly recommended!

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Godflesh - In all languages (2001)

Ok. I promise. This will be the last Godflesh-related post for a while. It's time for the two-CD retrospective, aptly titled In all languages.

The first disc, titled Flesh of god, serves as a best of-compilation, trying to capture Godflesh's varied and versatile career into fifteen songs, and doing a damn good job at that. The tracks are laid out chronologically. Beginning with Avalanche master song from their self titled EP, and laying down various favourites from along the way, up until Us & them. The Slavestate and Pure-era material are remastered versions.

The second disc, Beyond the flesh, is a collection of rarities and compilation tracks. Starting off with the emperor beast itself, Love is a dog from hell. Eight minutes of gnarly industrial metal filled with heavy riffs and crushing bass in synchronization with Machines. If you never got ahold of the Pathological compilation where this song was originally featured, now is the time to amend your ways.

Next up is Crush my soul (Ultramixedit), an edited and shortened version of the 'Ultramix' appearing on the Merciless EP. It was also treated to a remastering job, including Slavestate (Radiostate) and Xnoybis (Clubdubedit), the latter being another edited and shortened version taken from the Crush my soul/Xnoybis-disc.

On a personal note, I love the sound on the Peel session-recordings, and luckily two of them made their way onto the disc too, namely Tiny tears and Pulp. Raw and undisciplined!

The compilation is rounded up with two 'unreleased tracks', Witchhunt (Tyrant remix) and Us & them (Defensive remix). They are remixes from the scheduled Us & them in dub, which then got cancelled at some point, and sadly this release never saw the light of day.

In my opinion this is an extremely good compilation. The first disc features a bit of everything, and serves as an extremly good introduction to anybody who is new to Godflesh. The second disc offers little new to the 'Flesh aficionados, give or take the few previously unavailable tracks, but it's still a good view into the more experimental side with various remixes and compilation appearances.

Trust me on this one: It's worth it for Love is a dog from hell alone. Enjoy!

Tracklist:

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(CD1 Flesh of god: 95+70MB/320CBR)
(CD2 Beyond the flesh: 95+77MB/320CBR)

Godflesh - Messiah (2000)

All roads must come to an end, and even my stream of Godflesh EP's is starting to run dry.

There's this certain missing gem though, namely Messiah.

The material featured on the disc is some of the gloomiest stuff ever presented by the band. The source material was recorded and mixed between 1994-1995, and put out on Justin's own Avalanche Inc. on CDr, in a limited run of 1000 copies. In 2003 Relapse records reissued Messiah with new artwork on CD.

The disc features eight songs, four tracks and their dub counterparts, with a running time of 50 minutes. The first four tracks present us with a broad spectrum of music and emotion.

Beginning with the desolate and hopeless atmosphere of Messiah, which in my opinion features some of the best vocal performances in a Godflesh song ever. Going through the beatfueled Wilderness of mirrors, the bass-heavy Sungod and ending up with the slowly creeping and erupting rage of Scapegoat.

Up next are the dub counterparts of the aforementioned songs. Justin used recognizable chunks of the original songs, threw in some dense and fat beats and reworked them into these massive sensory assaults. Blissful!

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Godflesh - Crush my soul (1995)

The first press of this promotional EP was released in 1994 by Columbia, before Selfless hit the shelves. One year later, Earache put out this alternate version of Crush my soul with an additional track, Xnoybis (Psychofuckdub).

The disc starts off with the Selfless album version of Crush my soul. Up next is Crush my soul (Ultramix), a 15-minute remix which incorporates electronic beats and various effects. Although the mix is interesting, in my opinion the track is a bit too drawn out and lacks focus. Perhaps a shorter version would have been more fitting? Although the track names differ, the Ultramix is the same as the remix on the '94 promo.

Everything ends with Xnoybis (Ultrafuckdub). Another long remix. 17 and then some minutes in length, this is the same track as featured on the Xnoybis promo CD.

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Godflesh - Xnoybis (1994)

Xnoybis overdose, anyone?

To play on the, some would say radiofriendly, atmosphere of the catchy and hook-filled Xnoybis, this four-track promotional disc was sent out to different radio stations.

For a quick rundown, it's just four different versions of Xnoybis. The first, fittingly titled Xnoybis (Edit), is an edited version of the original track. The second track, Xnoybis (Clubdub), is an extended remix with a rather mellow atmosphere. The third, titled Xnoybis (Psychofuckdub), also found on the Crush my soul EP, is a rather drawn out atmospheric remix. 17 minutes of an "ambient droning guitars"-affair. The disc ends with the Selfless album version.

Chill-out tunes by Godflesh. We've seen it all now, haven't we?

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Godflesh - Merciless (1994)

Merciless is second in line for the EP-series. The disc features four tracks with a running time of 28 minutes.

It all begins with the title track, which is actually an old Fall Of Because-tune. It's a suffocatingly slow piece with crushing riffs and heavy bass. Although it's rather simple in execution, it's truly merciless in atmosphere.

Up next are two Biomechanical remixes, the moniker under which Justin remixed Pantera. Both Blind and Unworthy lean more towards the industrial side of things, featuring some looped beats, lot's of sound effects and, especially on Unworthy, a rather uneasy atmosphere.

The disc ends with Flowers, a droning deconstruction of Don't bring me flowers from Pure. Robert Hampson of Loop is credited for guitar appearances on the third and fourth track. Raw and clear in sound, this comes highly recommended!

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Godflesh - Cold world (1991)

As promised, I'll be doing a series of Godflesh posts, cranking out all those overlooked EP's and the In all languages-collection.

We'll get the show running with Cold world. The EP contains pre-Pure-era material, which would have had no problem fitting on the full length quality-wise.

Featuring four tracks, the title track Cold world and Nihil, in addition with two Nihil-remixes. Both unremixed tracks are golden in my books and essential Godflesh material. Although I'm all for remixes and deconstruction of sounds, these two just sound very much alike and offer little variation for the listener. I'm not saying that they're bad remixes. For my tastes there are just too many similar elements in both, and sadly they end up sounding a bit stale.

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Godflesh - Hymns (2001)

Hymns, the final Godflesh studio album, is yet another turn in execution and style. With a labelswitch from Earache to Music For Nations, and the return of Ted Parsons (ex-Swans, ex-Prong) on drums, everybody was understandably on their toes, anxiously awaiting the album release.

On Hymns the band are moving away from the more electronic sound of a few previous records, although not discarding them altogether (there's still a few loops thrown in for good measure), and heading back to the more guitar driven sound of their earlier albums. The songs are pretty straightforward in execution, riff-heavy guitars, grinding bass and Ted's unexpected and precise, at times metronome-like, drum patterns.

The production is immaculate, and perhaps too clean for some lovers of audiofilth, as they were coined the somewhat unnecessary nickname: "KornFlesh". The record is indeed groovy and grinding on all fronts, no doubt about that. Perhaps the more accessible songs, perhaps the spotless production, made Team Graybeard and the old industrial grumpies moan nonsense about "selling out" and "discarding their past".

Each record Godflesh put out was different, and I think Hymns was in no way different on that aspect. Even closing up the gap between Jesu and Godflesh, the last track even makes a clear transition within the song, from angry Godflesh to a more mellow Jesuesque sound. When you think about it now, approximately nine years later, you realize that both projects were not that far apart in sound either, especially on later Godflesh material. It was the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one.

As a conclusion, Hymns is a worthy swan song and goodbye from one of the greatest industrial metal acts of our time. Enjoy!

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Godflesh - Us and them (1999)

Godflesh return once again, this time as a two-piece with Ben and Justin at the helm. Ditching the live drums once again, they cleared the path for the return of Machines and setting the stage for Godflesh's most experimental release to date.

Initially it was this experimentation that had the listeners divided into a few camps again. While some were cringing and snarling the "the album has no soul"-mantra, others were really into the incorporation of drum and bass lines and hip hop rhythms. "Sometimes you get some, sometimes you lose some".

Sadly the exploration and experimentation was mostly just a scratch on the surface, leaving me craving for a more thorough implementation of their new sonic tools. Not to say that the result is hollow, it isn't. I just know, or I sincerely hope that I know, that these guys had way more to show than what they offered here.

Although the "bodysplitting breaks" Justin promised didn't find their way onto the disc, the end product is, still to this day, a surprisingly diverse and heavy album. Especially the last two tracks, The internal and especially Live to lose, which dates back to as early as '95, but was never released before, are clearly the beginning of the audial transformation what will be later known as Jesu.

As a conclusion, now that over ten years have passed since the release of this disc, one could state that the days of 20-minute feedback-laden outros are long gone, but luckily the band still managed to push some new ground and explore new ideas. To top everything off in cinnamon sugar and happy thoughts, I have to admit that I've developed a certain fondness of this album. It has certainly grown on me over time, and I'm happy to admit that I'm liking it (much more than in those olden days, anyway). A guy is allowed to change his mind and grow, right?

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Pitch Shifter - The remix war (1994)

A few asked for it, and as I previously promised, so here's The Remix War, remixing select songs from Desensitized.

Although the Therapy?, Gunshot and Biohazard remixes are a bit "hit and miss" in feel and execution, Pitch Shifter on the other hand manage to remix their own songs, if not into gold, but something pretty damn close.

This is not a record that will be sorely missed by the world of sounds, if it would disappear overnight, but more of a curious experimentation aimed at the more diehard Pitch Shifter collectors and completionists. It's good for a listen once in a while, but nothing to lose your sleep over.

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Pitch Shifter - Desensitized (1993)

Time for my last Pitch Shifter upload (If I can be arsed later on, I'll share the Remix Wars, and perhaps even Infotainment?, but the material after that is just too "meh" for my liking (And I don't even own those buggers anyway)).

While not as downtuned and harsh as predecessors Industrial and Submit, Desensitized managed to deliver a unique blend of older material, combined with a newfound "Ministryesque" groove.

The grunting vocal style has been replaced with snarls and shouts, they are almost like commands barked at the listener. The riffs are still heavy and memorable, driving the music onward at all times. The overall mood of the album is almost hypnotic. Hypnotic in the sense of groovy, drawn out songs, "headbanging rhythm" with industrial collages layered on top of everything.

Like I stated at the beginning, in my opinion the group took a turn for the worse after this release. Although Infotainment? has it's moments, and is more diverse than previous releases, it's only good for a listen once in a while. Their later stuff featured only one or two songs which I fancied per album, and was more like a slip down the stairs towards an inevitable faceplant.

With all the hate out of my system now, I'll state the obvious: This is still an excellent album and a milestone in industrial metal. Listen to the last track, Routine, and after a long period of silence, you'll get to hear the excellent re-recording of Landfill from the Industrial-album. It's almost worth for it alone!

Enjoy!

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(95+16MB/320CBR)

Pitch Shifter - Submit (1992)

Gritter, feels like this.

A firm fan favourite, the Submit "mini LP" had Pitch Shifter moving into another direction from the Industrial-album. It was their first release on Earache after their shift from Peaceville. Even though still heavy as a ten ton slab of concrete, they started incorporating more subtle elements into their music; ideas of their own if you will.

The guitar riffs are buried among the chugging grind, with the drum machine commanding the assault. On top of the mix is a howling and yowling lead guitar, ever present and coercing the listener into submission.

If you're into flagellation through audio, this is a great place to start. Although the sound is truely pummeling, at the same time it's very groovy .. and, I really, really hate to use the term, epic. Thanks to a great production and mastering job, the album has a living and breathing sound. Massive!

Highly recommended audio pleasure. Enjoy!

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(63MB/320CBR)

Pitch Shifter - Industrial (1991)

You know, this is just one of those things. When you decide to call your album Industrial, you better fucking deliver.

And they did.

Pitch Shifter was often called the bastard child of Godflesh, but in my opinion they added much more to the scene. The monotonous grunts, deliberately stiff drum programming (Trick question: does anybody recognize which drum machine it is :), gloomy atmosphere and pummeling palm muted riffs. Although I am admittedly a huge Godflesh fanboy, I always thought Pitch Shifter was more straightforward in their approach.

This is heavy, nasty and gritty industrial metal. There's no need to look any further. Enjoy!

"I'm an American, and I killed Americans. I'm a human being, and I killed human beings, and I did it in my society"
-Ed Kemper

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Godflesh - Songs of love and hate (1996)

Godflesh return to the scene two years after their previous album. The fourth full length took me completely by surprise after the slight disappointment that was Selfless.

The band added a third member, Bryan Mantia played live drums for the first time on a Godflesh record. He left before the tour, only to be replaced by Ted Parsons (Swans, Prong and later in Jesu). Although Machines had been dethroned, there were still mechanized beats incorporated into the mix.

The first track, Wake, already proves that the band is not here to fuck around. Extremely catchy, filled with hooks and extremely in your face. It's not an easy task to pull of heavy, pissed off, industrial metal with almost danceable rhythms and samples, but these guys are surely on their A-game here! Once Wake is over, you have barely time to catch your breath before Sterile prophet emerges from your speakers. Another onslaught, what is going on?

How should I sum up my feelings about Songs of love and hate? Despite being another Leonard Cohen-reference, it's easily one of my all-time favourite records. This is a biased view onto things, but I'll say it anyway: Everything that was wrong with Selfless, is fixed and reimbursed for on this album. And then there is Frail, perhaps my favourite melodic Godflesh track ever. There's a personal story attached to it, but let's not go into that. Ha, 13 or so years should be more than enough by now.

Enjoy!

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(95+33MB/320CBR)

Dead World - Thanatos descends (1996)

Dead World: part quatre.

This is the last part of our Dead World-saga, and indeed the best was saved for last. The album is laid out with a similar pattern that was present on Collusion: a song first, then a noisy interlude, song, interlude.

The interludes, titled Thanatos I-Thanatos IV, are reminiscent of Canady's work with Deathpile: industrial noise and feedback manipulations in their purest form.

Their industrial metal counterparts are like pneumatic drills: heavy and harsh, pummeling away at your senses. When you take the earlier Dead World material, add some harshness and grime, blend in some noisy interludes and effects, you get Thanatos descends, and it's crushing. Believe it or not, I love every second of it.

Too sad Jonathan Canady decided to bury the band after this release. The album is a worthy goodbye, and Deathpile is in a sense the successor and conclusion to Dead World. I'm just sad I didn't get to see where he would've taken the project from here.

Enjoy!

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(85MB/320CBR)

Dead World - Collusion (1992)

Dead World: part trois. I'll start with a word of warning: this is the most metal of all Dead World albums, if you don't like death metal, don't approach this album. Stay with the later material.

There, I've said it. If I'd be into namecalling, I'd call this an metal album with effects, intros and outros thrown in here and there for good measure. But I don't.

The Dead World threesome present us their early demos rolled into their first full length. It's clear from the beginning, that their vision hasn't been perfected yet. Although the album features great moments, my main gripe is the lack of focus. It's missing a common thread.

So why am I uploading this? Historical reasons, for the lulz, for that guy who keeps asking me about Dead World releases, for download completionists and people who'd like to broaden their musical horizons. Give it a try, it's not as bad as I made it out to be. I'm just too hooked on the good stuff.

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(83MB/320CBR)

Godflesh - Selfless (1994)

After a long delay I'm back. We'll continue down the small path we've begun, this time the fork in the road takes us to more Godflesh. Their third full length, Selfless.

Selfless has been called Godflesh's "rock and roll"-album, even by Broadrick himself, and in my opinion it's not that far off. Although it's more accessible than their early material, it's not commercial or "selling out" by a far shot.

The album goes into the works with a familiar recipe. Although the twosome discard much of the noisy guitar tone and feedback, the hypnotic, repetitive and droning guitar riffs are still present. Green's bass is still heavy, thumping and audible in the mix. The Machines still provide the beats, always on time, always against the grain. The vocals are cleaned up more, and there's even clear singing. There is more melodious work on the album, which makes it sound almost upbeat and joyful at times, then bouncing back to some pulsating industrial grit.

In my honest opinion it's not their brightest release, and I know for a fact that I enjoy their less-polished early material more, but this is still noteworthy progression of a very diverse band. The ending track, the 20-minute Go spread your wings, is not Pure II, but it's really damn close.

What the hell, try it for yourself. Go ahead and see what you make of it. Hope you enjoy!

I see so much, burns my eyes, lift your arms up, touch the sky.

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Cable Regime - Kill lies all (1993)

Cable Regime were a band from the UK. They were active between 1988 and 1997 in the field of noise/industrial rock music. During their existence they released 3 albums, 2 EPs, a 12" single and were featured on various compilations.

The group featured Paul Neville (previously a member of Fall Of Because) on guitar and vocals, Diarmuid Dalton (member of Jesu) on bass and Steve Hough on second guitar (All three were also members of Godflesh at some point in time).

Cable Regime was called a "more melodic Godflesh"; There's a familiar recipe: the distorted and buzzing guitars, the monotonous bass lines and even the mandatory drum machine. During their active years, the group never got the recognition they deserved, and they somewhat unjustly stayed underground. The time has come to fix the injustice, here's five tracks of industrial rock played in a haze of forty something minutes. Hope you enjoy!

Cable Regime MySpace
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(92MB/320CBR)

Godflesh - Pure (1992)

This is the band's second full length album, and the first Godflesh release to feature Robert Hampson of Loop on guitar (He is featured on four tracks: 'Spite', 'I wasn't born to follow', 'Predominance' and 'Don't bring me flowers').

Pure was clearly a transitional album for the band. They added more melodic elements into the mix, and reduced the gap between their heavy early days, and their later, at times almost groovy sound.

Whether this was too metal for the industrial crowd, and vice versa, is open for debate. The drum machine is still here, it's clear and more present than ever; the precise programming is again a key factor for the 'in your face'-feeling of the album. Although Broadrick's vocal style is transforming towards a more clearer and melodic output, there's still enough barking and snarling to satisfy the more metal part of the crowd.

The CD-version featured two additional tracks to the vinyl: 'Love, hate (Slugbaiting)' and 'Pure II'. The first three introductory minutes of Love, hate (Slugbaiting) are Fall Of Because live with Paul Neville on guitars. Pure II is a rather long piece of industrial ambience, twenty something minutes of droning feedback more reminiscent of Broadrick's other sound manipulation projects.

Only one questions remains to be answered: Where is Pure III? Hope you enjoy this classic release!

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(95+81MB/320CBR)