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Godflesh leader Justin Broadrick plays electric guitar on a new song by pop hit-maker Phoebe Bridgers.
The industrial metal and post-metal pioneer performs on Bobby, a track from Bridgers’ long-awaited third album Lost Weekend, out today (August 14). Listen to the team-up below.
Broadrick, 56, makes the guest performance as Godflesh build up to the release of their penultimate studio album next month. Decay will come out on September 25 via Relapse, and lead single Living/Ending is now streaming.
It’ll be the two-piece band’s first effort since Broadrick announced his intention to end the project back in March, as the effects of a recent hernia surgery make it unsafe for him to scream onstage again.
The Birmingham-born musician wrote on social media: “I had a huge hernia, and for it to be repaired, I had to endure a six-inch incision in my groin. This unfortunately was not keyhole surgery. I have a very weak abdominal wall, which at being 57 years old this year, is not going to improve.
“If I continue to perform and shout/scream as I do with Godflesh, then I am at high risk for more hernias, and blowing out my abdominal wall entirely. Godflesh live ended the day of my surgery, and upon the surgeon making this statement.”
Godflesh will not play live again, but Broadrick has written one last album for the project. He said in his announcement that he hopes to record it at the end of this year. After the band’s dissolution, Broadrick will continue to make music with his shoegaze project Jesu and electronic solo project JK Flesh.
Broadrick formed Godflesh together with bassist B.C. Green in 1988, shortly after he stepped down from grindcore legends Napalm Death. Their first EP, 1988’s Godflesh, and debut album, 1989’s Streetcleaner, were cult hits, noted for their extreme heaviness and the use of a drum machine, unprecedented in heavy metal.
Broadrick explained to Whynow in 2023 that the drum machine was inspired by hip-hop stars Run-DMC and their 1985 single King Of Rock, while their industrial sound was a reflection of what he heard growing up in Birmingham.
“Birmingham, at that time, was the Detroit of fucking England,” he said, “and I immediately connected with, and was extremely sensitive to, that environment. At the council estate we lived on, at night you could hear factories. In summer, with the windows open, you could smell factories and hear the grinding of sounds.”
Despite Godflesh’s underground status, they have a host of high-profile admirers, including members of Korn and Faith No More. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has praised them as “unbelievably crushing”. The band sought out artist Andres Serrano to make the covers of their Load and Reload albums after seeing that Serrano had directed the music video for Godflesh’s 1994 single Crush My Soul.
While Godflesh’s career winds down, Bridgers’ is reactivating following a hiatus. Lost Weekend is the US musician’s first album since 2020, and her recent spring tour was her first since 2023. She’s currently preparing for North American and European tour dates later this year, kicking off in Indianapolis on September 14 and 15.
