Customer Reviews

Songs of Love & Hate

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This record - just like other Godflesh records invokes emotions and at the same time has riffs that you will remember till your end of your life!

That said, I hope the end of Ilya Malafeyev (from Russia) is pretty soon since he has the cheek to be blasphemous while he knows not what he is talking! For his information - I too am a Ministry fan, and if you know about Al Jourgensen's and ALL THE Fear Factory band member's tastes, you would know that they are huge Godflesh fans themselves. In fact if you've seen Ministry's Sphinctour DVD, you would see Al wearing mostly generic t-shirts, but the only "band" t-shirt he is seen wearing is Godflesh and that too this very album you chose to desecrate.

Go buy this CD and all others - all of them are masterpieces just as this one. Eagerly awaiting Jesu!

Before I start, you should know that my opinion will vary wildly from what you're probably heard about this album. Fans love 'Streetcleaner', I abhore it. I also think 'Hymns' is second only to this, so obviously I'm not your common Godflesh fan.

Having only heard some 'Pure' era stuff previously, an ex-girlfriend of mine bought me this for my birthday. Well, girls come and girls go, and dammit, I still have my Godflesh 'Songs of Love and Hate'. It's that kind of album. I declared "Frail" as my favorite song, and today, it still is.

I blame this album for the rap/rock craze of the mid-90's, where the cool thing was to thank Godflesh in your liner notes. Infectious might be the word to describe the two opening tracks. Justin has always claimed that he hates metal and always wanted to bring more hip-hop influence into Godflesh. This album was the beginning of just that. Sure, there were others who did, but not with such raw anger.

The live drummer breathes new life into the tiring Godflesh formula. If you dislike the 'mechanical' sound, you might want to give this a try. Shame Brian ran off with Primus, I'd give an appendage to have this incarnation of Godflesh writing new music today. Luckily, we have the next best thing -- Jesu.

It's hard to claim an album by Godflesh to be their "experimental" album, but that's what "Songs of Love and Hate" is. This is the first CD that Godflesh decided to try using an actual living breathing human drummer. They didn't think lightly about who they got to sit behind the skins either. They gave that difficult and demanding job to Brian "Brain" Mantia. Brain was the drummer of the Lymbomaniacs, worked on several projects with Buckethead and Bootsy Collins, and after this CD, went on to be the only person able to replace Tim "Herb" Alexander in the complex Primus rhythm section.

I really like something about this CD. Even though the programming is beyond anything else I've ever heard anyone do on the other Godflesh CDs, there is a certain organic element that you notice on "Songs of Love and Hate". Something very human about having a human drummer. Maybe I'm just imagining it. Maybe it's all in my head.

As great as this CD is, I don't think this is a starter CD, for those not familiar with Godflesh. This CD is different enough from their other material, that you may not know what your listening for. Once you have a couple of other Godflesh CDs, then I would get "Songs of Love and Hate", so you could really contrast the difference between a Brain and a Machine. IMO

As the title indicates, J.K.Broadrick & Co. show a minimum of humanity with this album, a characteristic that was in doubt of all previous GF records. Gratifyingly, GF decided to drop their increasingly formulaic sounding machine beats in favor of a real drummer. Brian Mantia once was a member of cross-over rockers Limbomaniacs. As a result, "Songs of L&H" is GF's most 'beautiful' album, but also very powerful. On songs like "Wake", "Gift from heaven", and "Almost heaven", GF expand their typical sound with ambient passages, jungular rhythm-patterns, and heavy industrial-dub. The production is fuller, the sound is more varied, and the songs are more laid-back than on GF's early albums. This gradual move towards a more club-oriented sound would find full flower on the remix album "L&H in dub" and on the subsequent effort "Us and them". On the other hand, GF have lost a bit of their edge, because some songs like "Hunter" and "Angel domain" are just standard industrial rock. Overall, this is a pretty good album, cementing GF's status as one of heavy rock's most innovative bands.

This isn't Godflesh's best record but I'll be damned if
it isn't one of their best. Brian Mantia plays drums on
this cd- the result? There really isn't much...actually if
I didn't read the liner notes I wouldn't be able to tell
really. That is until you check out the track "Frail"
the most organic song on the record. Yep- the cd flows into
usual Godflesh themes Broadrick and Green pen their anger
into obtuse imagery of religion, alienation, and non conformity.
Yupper...this cd is a must for GF fans. Proving still that they are/were a force to be reckon with and why they are possibly the
most imitated and underated bands in their genre.

This was the first Godflesh CD I purchased, before Streetcleaner and Pure. I ordered this from a catalog shortly after it's release and the little write up said perfect for Ministry fans so I figured hey what the hell. Now all these years later I still love this CD. It is my favorite Godflesh album and yes I now own evey other Godflesh album put to disc as well as a few side projects. There never has been a Godflesh album that I dislike, each one has been it's own beautiful beast. I wonder why so many Godflesh fans waste time tearing one album down to try to make another sound good. Godflesh lives forever. Praise the Flesh.

Godflesh is a source of happiness in my life. I don't know why I am the only person I know who owns any Godflesh at all. Too bad for them. They are the greatest band in the history of music. Not only that, but the best song in the history of music is on this album. I'd pay full retail-CD price for "Gift From Heaven" alone. Upon hearing the first track, one discovers that Godflesh is doing anything but mellowing with age. It's fast and aggressive, and cures into slower but very methodical aggression with the album's second best song, "Hunter." Then comes "Gift From Heaven," where the album takes a turn toward the somewhat slower, somewhat gentler, somewhat more sensitive, culminating in the third best song, "Frail." Stunningly beautiful album. Why only 4 stars, if I'm so totally enraptured by them? Well, there are a smattering of tracks that I typically skip (listening to the whole thing takes a lot out of me). And with the 3 songs I mentioned, they've raised the bar so high, that they blew their own curve. So be it.

Songs of Love and Hate is the pure rock album Godflesh have always been threatening to make. It's also their most commercially accessable, though it won't be added to radio playlists anytime soon. The rythem section (sounding for the first time like a real rythem section) lays down a solid foundation of groove for Broadrick's thick wall of guitars and tortured, anquished vocals. The addition of drummer Brian Mantia gives the songs an added human dimension, though they still beef up their sound with programming and some drum loops here and there. This is one Godflesh album I can listen to from beginning to end. I wouldn't change a thing about it.

this album is definitly not as experimental and innovative as the other godflesh albums, but i like very much anyway. the music is furious with catchy beats and some nice guitars. also the lyrics are great, and broadrick does a good job a singing/screaming. this may not be the most innovative godflesh album, but it is the most listenable and accesable. it is compareable to ministry in some parts, but it also has some very unique parts

Out of all the swelling pit of fiery noise that is Broadrick's body of work, this disc is probably the most listenable and the most conventional. Not to suggest for a moment that it is bad, but it simply doesn't have the freshness and "wow" of the other Godflesh releases. What we have here is what bands like KoRn and the Deftones would sound like if they had a modicum of talent. Hip-hop rhythms are mixed with smothering Streetcleaner-esque guitars and strident samples. Screaming hatefully throughout it all is Broadrick, who mixes the vocals quite well; it definately adds to the music, but the lyrics themselves do leave a lot to be desired. I can't stand to read the lyric sheet; it's so pretentious in some areas it borders on chuckle-inducing. Luckily, most of the vocals are unintelligible or obscured by the instrumental fury of Songs of Love and Hate. Most of the songs on this particular outing are strong, with only one track that I would consider weak(Time, Death and Wastefulness). Godflesh's personal artistic Achilles' Heel has always been a lack of tasteful brevity, as was demonstrated many, many times in Selfless; they just stretch songs farther than they can go. Ones that would be perfectly fine at 3-4 minutes are made into ones that last 7, sometimes 9. This flaw seems to be more or less cleaned up here; I can see only three songs where they over-extend themselves, and even then, it's not that much of a song-ruiner. On the whole, it is solid and a must buy for any Godflesh fan, but simply isn't up to the experimental bar that Broadrick and Green usually set for themselves. It's good, but all sounds just a tad too familiar to be great.