GODFLESH: Entire 'A World Lit Only By Fire' Album Available For Streaming

"A World Lit Only By Fire", the new album from reformed U.K. industrial metal pioneers GODFLESH, can be streamed in its entirety at NPR.org. The CD, which takes its title from the 1992 New York Times bestseller by William Manchester, a former professor of history at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, will be released on October 7 via GODFLESH frontman Justin K. Broadrick's Avalanche Recordings.

"A World Lit Only By Fire" track listing:

01. New Dark Ages
02. Deadend
03. Shut Me Down
04. Life Giver Life Taker
05. Obeyed
06. Curse Us All
07. Carrion
08. Imperator
09. Towers Of Emptiness
10. Forgive Our Fathers

"It's very much back to the spirit of the old stuff," GODFLESH bassist G.C. Green tells Decibel magazine about the new album. "We're not using loads of samples, we're not using a drummer as we did on later releases — it's quite stripped down. It's about keeping the essence of what we were. There was something there all the way through, but as time went along and we had to deal with labels and agents, I think too many things got thrown into the mix. Now it's back to like it was when we started. And it doesn't feel forced. We're not doing it for the money or the glory. We're doing it because it feels right."

Lyrically, Broadrick tells Decibel that he took some inspiration from Manchester's book and transposed it upon modern times. "We stole the title from a book that covers the brutality of medieval times throughout Europe, but for us it's indicative of many things. In many ways, it's a resignation to what we are, which is essentially flawed savages.

"A lot of the frustration of GODFLESH is internal — it's the human condition, the frailty, and that we're essentially amoral. There's so little to sway us. It's a resignation to the fact that we're just beasts, and the world always has been and always will be lit only by fire. We've always been primal, and we still are. We see it in all four corners of the globe. Savagery happens everywhere, even in our own backyards. So, it's looking at oneself and being disgusted, but also resigned. You are good and you are evil, and there's very little in between sometimes."

GODFLESH's "Decline & Fall" EP was released on June 26 in the U.S. via Avalanche Recordings. The Japanese version of the EP includes two bonus songs.

GODFLESH released its first new recording in over 12 years through Decibel magazine's Flexi Series. A cover of the track "F.O.D. (Fuck of Death)" by legendary death thrashers SLAUGHTER (Canada) was included in the subscriber version of the magazine's November 2013 issue.

Band photo credit: VB / Rarely Unable