Reunited GODFLESH Confirmed For U.K.'s SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL

Following the news that the 2010 edition of Birmingham's acclaimed annual Supersonic Festival will be headlined by SWANS, Capsule has announced the second headlining act, GODFLESH. Acclaimed by many as founders of the industrial metal movement, GODFLESH will be returning to its Birmingham roots to play the band's first U.K. show in over 10 years.

Featuring band members Justin Broadrick (ex-NAPALM DEATH and HEAD OF DAVID) and Benny Green (ex-FALL OF BECAUSE),GODFLESH will be bringing its crushing, apocalyptic sound back home to Birmingham in only their second show since it disbanded in 2002.

"We cannot even recall specifically the first Birmingham GODFLESH show. Oddly, we think it was supporting SUICIDE in 1988, just after the release of our first mini-LP on Swordfish, the record label of Birmingham's best record shop," said Broadrick. "So it's only natural that the first GODFLESH U.K. show in its original form in over 10 years, comes home to its birthplace, and for whom better than Supersonic, the organization responsible for keeping Birmingham on the map with underground music, be it metal or otherwise. It is with great pleasure that GODFLESH returns to its roots."

Moving from its previous July weekend date to October from 2010 onwards, Supersonic will once again take place in and around the Custard Factory in the heart of Eastside of Birmingham, utilizing converted factory warehouses and art galleries and offering up-close, intimate settings to showcase some of the most exciting music out there.

In a recent interview with The Quietus, Justin Broadrick spoke about GODFLESH's reunion for what was then supposed to be a one-off appearance at the French festival Hellfest. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

The Quietus: How did the GODFLESH reformation come about?

Justin Broadrick: It's for a high-caliber European metal festival called Hellfest in France. They've spent the last three years trying to get us to do a GODFLESH reunion and we'd turned down every offer they made, until about nine months ago. To be honest we thought it'd be the last thing we'd ever do, it'd contradict everything we'd talked about in a way, but for some reason the last offer they made I suddenly got a bit nostalgic. Like any of us, if becomes a bit of a sentimental thing, wondering what it'd be like to do this not as a teenager. I though Benny would just be totally negative about it. Even though I've continued to work in music ever since the demise of GODFLESH, he had stepped away from music and got a very nice job, been to university and got degrees, so I just casually mentioned it to him, but as soon as I did he was really quite thrilled about it, which took me by surprise. I thought it was a dead subject between us. If he'd have turned round and said "no chance," I'd have agreed, but he inspired me to start thinking positively about it. We talked about it solidly for about a month and then went back to Hellfest and said yes — believe it or not we'll do it.

The Quietus: Is it just a one-off?

Justin Broadrick: Ye-e-e-ss. We wouldn't commit either way until we do this performance, I think. It's going to be hard to say whether it feels right or wrong until we've actually played as GODFLESH. Maybe we'll feel like a couple of old geezers treading water — or if we're excited by it and it works then yeah, we may do more. Now we're older and (laughs) well, subjectively mature, we'll see if it still gets the juices flowing.

The Quietus: "Steetcleaner" perhaps wasn't an obvious candidate for a deluxe edition reissue. What did you think about the whole project?

Justin Broadrick: Earache had already reissued a couple of budget-priced GODFLESH box sets — "Pure", "Slavestate" and stuff — and they'd remastered them themselves and I really wanted to get in on the act this time. I hadn't had a particularly good or stable relationship with the label, but I'd always wanted to do something with "Streetcleaner". I always thought that album justified going the distance, but I said I'd only get involved if I could hold the reins, and they were totally open to that. So I remastered it myself in my own studio, and found lots of bonuses, rehearsal versions, live versions, an entire unreleased version of side one that I dug out of the garage, and cobbled together this super-deluxe version of the album which is actually really fucking good.

The Quietus: You describe the album as "THE most direct statement of intent we made."

Justin Broadrick: The first mini-album and "Streetcleaner" were made so instinctively, unaffected by any sense of ambition, they were very pure. I was 18, 19 when I made them. They're primitive, instinctual records. Genuinely angry, genuinely confused, genuinely frustrated.

Read the entire interview from The Quietus.