''Songs of Love and Hate'' is the fourth studio album by English

industrial metal Industrial metal is the fusion of heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Prominent industrial metal acts include Ministry, Nine In ...

band

Godflesh Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the title Fall of Because but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick (guitar, vocals and programming) and G. C. Gree ...

. Released on 20 August 1996 through

Earache Records Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by rel ...

, it is the band's first album to feature live drums, played by drummer

Bryan Mantia Bryan Kei Mantia (born February 4, 1963), known professionally as Brain, is an American rock drummer. He has played with bands such as Primus, Guns N' Roses, Praxis, and Godflesh, and with other performers such as Tom Waits, Serj Tankian, Bil ...

, and a more traditional heavy metal sound, generally lacking the experimental and mechanical elements of previous releases. The cover is a photograph of

Cancer Alley Cancer Alley (french: Allée du Cancer) is the regional nickname given to an stretch of land along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in the River Parishes of Louisiana, which contains over 150 petrochemical plants and r ...

, Louisiana. An accompanying dub-inspired remix album, ''

Love and Hate in Dub ''Love and Hate in Dub'' is remix album by industrial metal band Godflesh released on 24 June 1997 through Earache Records. The remixed songs are sourced from their 1996 album ''Songs of Love and Hate'', and they adopt a more ambient, dub and dr ...

'', was released in 1997. Both records were reissued by Earache in 2009.

Music and composition

The choice to replace Godflesh's signature drum machines with

as a human drummer stemmed from

Justin Broadrick Justin Karl Michael Broadrick (born 15 August 1969) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and i ...

's growing dissatisfaction with the limitation of mechanical percussion. After initially making ''Songs of Love and Hate'' with machines, Broadrick decided that there was a lack of dynamic range and groove. About the search for the proper drummer, Broadrick said, "The aim was to get a drummer who plays like a machine, but we wanted a feeling of movement and motion as opposed to a machine where it’s very, very static." According to

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's Jason Birchmeier, ''Songs of Love and Hate'' conforms to a more traditional heavy metal sound, being "less mechanical and more fluid than preceding albums." Most of the tracks are on the verse-chorus-verse form. On the album's sound, Meier further commented, "The monolithic riffs grind harmoniously as they never have before, with Broadrick's gigantic guitar tone bulging through the speakers with rude, distorted salience while Green's bass guitar grinds with more prominence than one can nearly handle. To make the sounds even more extreme, B. Mantia smashes and hammers his drums with rabid aggression, instilling the sense of anger than no machine can possibly accomplish." Peter Buckley, the author of ''The Rough Guide to Rock'', considered Mantia's drumming as "occasionally

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

y". In 2018, on the tour supporting Godflesh's 2017 album ''

Post Self ''Post Self'' is the eighth studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 17 November 2017 through frontman Justin Broadrick's own record label, Avalanche Recordings, and was the band's second album since reforming ...

'', the band performed "Gift from Heaven" live. The song had never been played before, and it was quickly dropped from the set for, according to Broadrick, not working in a live setting.

Critical reception

critic Jason Birchmeier said that "never before has the group rocked so hard, sounding tighter as a unit and more human than ever before." ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...

'' wrote, "Imagine a confluence between

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

and

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affili ...

's rhythms." Valerie Potter of '' Vox'' called the album "challenging and savagely satisfying". In his Reissue Review,

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quiet ...

' Mark Eglinton, who viewed the album as "accessible", described it as "a fulcrum for Godflesh", further writing that it "stands resolute as a unique snapshot of a shift in the Godflesh trajectory, as well as being their most multi-faceted release." In reviewing a compilation including ''Songs of Love and Hate'', Eric Schneider of AllMusic said the album was arguably Godflesh's most straightforward release.

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

G. C. Green Ben George Christian "G. C." Green (Born 1964) is an English musician, best known as the co-founder and bass guitarist of the industrial metal band Godflesh. Biography A native of Birmingham, Green was involved in the city's post-punk and got ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1996 albums Earache Records albums Godflesh albums