Tracklist
New Dark Ages | 4:51 | ||
Deadend | 5:08 | ||
Shut Me Down | 4:26 | ||
Life Giver Life Taker | 5:28 | ||
Obeyed | 5:35 | ||
Curse Us All | 3:47 | ||
Carrion | 6:05 | ||
Imperator | 4:27 | ||
Towers Of Emptiness | 6:35 | ||
Forgive Our Fathers | 7:40 |
Credits (4)
- BC Green*Bass
- JK Broadrick*Guitar, Voice, Electronics [Machines]
- Justin K BroadrickLyrics By
- JK Broadrick*Producer [Produced By], Mixed By
Versions
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11 versions
Image | , | – | In Your Collection, Wantlist, or Inventory | Version Details | Data Quality | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A World Lit Only By Fire LP, Album | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK & Europe | 2014 | UK & Europe — 2014 | |||||
A World Lit Only By Fire LP, Album, Limited Edition, Red Translucent | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK | 2014 | UK — 2014 | Recently Edited | ||||
A World Lit Only By Fire 13×File, MP3, Album | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK & Europe | 2014 | UK & Europe — 2014 | New Submission | ||||
A World Lit Only By Fire 13×File, FLAC, Album, 24-Bit | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK & Europe | 2014 | UK & Europe — 2014 | New Submission | ||||
A World Lit Only By Fire 2×CD, Album, Digipak | Daymare Recordings – DYMC-230 | Japan | 2014 | Japan — 2014 | New Submission | ||||
A World Lit Only By Fire CD, Album | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK | 2014 | UK — 2014 | |||||
A World Lit Only By Fire Cassette, Album | Hydra Head Records – HH666-242 | US | 2014 | US — 2014 | New Submission | ||||
A World Lit Only By Fire LP, Album, Limited Edition, Red Translucent with White Splatter | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK | 2023 | UK — 2023 | New Submission | ||||
A World Only Lit By Fire LP, Album, Limited Edition, Repress, Test Pressing | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK | 2023 | UK — 2023 | New Submission | ||||
A World Lit Only By Fire LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Repress, Stereo, White | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK | 2023 | UK — 2023 | New Submission | ||||
A World Lit Only By Fire LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Opaque Red | Avalanche Recordings – AREC034 | UK | 2023 | UK — 2023 | New Submission |
Recommendations
Reviews
- Edited 9 years agoiv been trying so hard to like this album by listening to it multiple times at least once every few days but i just can't get into it. Godflesh reforming with the drum machine is one of the few musical hopes that iv had (that have come true) and this one iv held on to since 1996 when the dreadful Songs of Love and Hate album came out.
when SOLAH came out i was crushed i could tell from the very few first seconds that this was no longer the Godflesh i knew and loved and i have never actually listened to the album in full since its release till now (same goes for Us and Them and Hymns which are both equally as awful). they had just turned into just another heavy metal band loosing every element that made them unique and special (save for a few tracks spread out on all 3 albums).
now this new album A World Lit Only By Fire is no where near as bad as the albums that were recorded from 1996-2001 but still it retains an element from those albums that i just can't stand and that is the overly aggressive vocals. they just sound so unnatural and forced, like a bad actor or some wimp trying to sound like a tough guy until he gets put in his place by a real tough guy.
the music is also not all that great, it sounds simplistic with an attitude of trying super hard to make the heaviest album in the world and overall all elements put together just end up sounding like a parody of Godflesh's golden years (1998-1994).
the one exception to this is Life Giver Life Taker which is an amazing track and sounds like an absolute classic Godflesh track. it stands up as one of there best tracks ever and the whole album is worth buying for this one song.
its sort of ironic to me how Justin Broadrick speaks about how lame all these recent band reunions are but i can say with the bands that have reunited that i have loved have put out some of there greatest material ever in there recent years i.e. My Bloody Valentine - MBV, Anthrax - Worship Music and Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks. yet the new Godflesh album to me out of all the band reunions the only one that doesn't live up to there best years.
i do like the Decline and Fall EP quite a bit though but again the exaggerated angry vocals also put a damper on it but it has been on regular rotation since its release cause its got some really good tunes like Playing With Fire which is just fantastic.
but this is not about Decline and Fall but that EP and this album do give hope that Godflesh might get out of there system this extremely inflated amount of aggression and hopefully find that great middle ground that we have seen on there Pure and Selfless albums.
i see all these comments and interviews where people say "Godflesh has learned to hate again!" hate this and hate that, "where do you find your source for hatred?", etc. i think most people these days probably started listening to Godflesh somewhere between 1996 and 2001 but not me iv been listening from almost nearly the beginning starting in 1989 when Streetcleaner came out which i bought when i was 10 years old.
now i love the album Streetcleaner its one of the best albums ever made in the history of music. yes of course its full of aggressiveness and anger (at least i think it is its hard to understand the lyrics) but the difference is it sounds authentic. i can really tell that everything about that album is really how the author feels and if its not he did a hell of a job making it up. its a very convincing album as are all the recordings from 1989-1994.
but this new album is just not convincing i just don't feel like I'm listening to a real angry guy i feel like I'm listening to a sweet song singer who got an offer of tons of money to sing in a death metal band and just doesn't fit in.
it seems like people who seem to praise all this "hate" stuff have never heard there more sombre songs; Mantra, Body Dome Light, I Wasn't Born To Follow, Don't Bring Me Flowers, Slateman, Spinebender, Life is Easy, etc.
half of the albums Selfless and Pure are melancholic, depressing and amazingly beautiful so where are all the comments "Godflesh has learned to be depressed, hopeless and sad again!". well they haven't and those more down tracks are my very favorite Godflesh tracks of all time and i hope there will come a time in the future where Justin Broadrick writes that kind of material again.
perhaps Jesu has completely sucked those emotions into its project but il say as much as i love Jesu none of the songs actually sound like the sorrowful songs of old in the 1988-1994 period and they don't substitute for it either.
iv heard Justin say in interviews there would be plenty of people who would be happy if they kept making the same album over and over again and i guess I'm just one of those people. if they kept on remaking Pure and Selfless over and over i would never get tired of it and id welcome it with more then open arms.
of course i think Streetcleaner should never be remade its so perfect and it just has that feeling of a once in a lifetime kind of album and should be left to stand on its own for all time.
again this album isn't absolutely awful it does have some good moments so i gave it 2 stars cause its alright but nothing special to talk about or recommend to anybody.
i think a sign to look for a real return to form is when Godflesh starts using no more then one or two word combinations for there album titles along with ambiguous abstract imagery again. this might tell us a new great album is coming. all the great Godflesh albums had no more then one or two words combined into one for a title, Streetcleaner, Pure, Selfless, Merciless, Slavestate, (exception for Cold World).
the music went sour when they starting using 3 words of more for there album titles and started using imagery that you could tell what you were looking at the moment you saw it.
i never thought Godflesh would reform with there original drum machine sound so if they made it this far there's hope that in the future they will get better but if not well i guess this is still better then nothing but more then that i can't say. at least i still have there old albums which have been on regular rotation since they came out.
maybe in 5/10 years time il come back to this album and say "hey its not as bad as i thought" which wouldn't be the first time i liked an album i didn't originally like many years later after first hearing it. but on the other hand it also wouldn't be the first time i never liked an album by a band i liked even 20 years after its release so its entirely possible that il just never be able to get into it.
well whats another dud on the Godflesh fire? there has already been 3 before this so i shouldn't be surprised. i guess its just that my hopes were dashed which is really the worst part of all of this but again there's always hope for the future. referencing A World Lit Only By Fire (LP, Album) AREC034
Please, ladies and gentlemen, take some time and do this relase justice by voting on your version. One user has given each and every available version just one star, thereby lowering the average significantly. One can't help wondering why somebody would want to own an album he dislikes that much in six different versions ...referencing A World Lit Only By Fire (LP, Album) AREC034
13 years.
13 years since Godflesh left us with their last album "Hymns". I remember being slightly dissapointed by that album as a young lad, even though it has grown on me over the years. But for me it didn't (and still doesn't) have the same impact that monumental albums like "Pure", "Selfless" or "Streetcleaner" had. After "Hymns" Godflesh broke up due to musical and personal differences, and Justin Broadrick pursued a different career as Jesu which I might add, was not (huuuge understatement) entirely unsuccesfull.
Then, all of a sudden, talks about a Godflesh reunion emerged. Hellfest in France managed to secure some comeback shows in the last couple of years and apparantly that has left Justin and Ben Green wanting more. Because here we are now, with a new album following an EP ("Decline and Fall") released in the summer.
Big question now: was it worth the wait? Well, that depends. I was perfectly content myself to leave Godflesh in the past, occasionally putting on one of the old albums. And besides, I felt Jesu still had some Godflesh vibe in it. I am also perfectly aware that after such a long downtime, expectations are through the roof. And it is really hard pleasing die-hard fans. They will want a "Streetcleaner part 2" or "Pure part 2".
There's no denying that "A world lit only by fire" is 100% Godflesh. It is instantly recognisable. Justin's monotonous, dissonant riffs and gruff shouts, Ben's trademark throbbing, warbling basslines, the drummachine poundings, it's all there. It fits like an old shoe. And while the 25 year old Björn would be ecstatic with "A world lit only by fire", the 38 year old Björn feels that somehow, like the EP, this album feels a little bit unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, "A world.." is a great album by most standards. It pounds, it rocks, it is groovy even, but most of all it is HEAVY. Hell, it's better than pretty much 90% of all Metal that gets churned out these days. And even in their mid-to-late 40's, the duo can sonically kick anyone's arse still. But when compared to their early work, which will inevitably happen, I feel it falls a bit short. Am I one of those fans who wants "Pure part 2"? Maybe I am.
So in conclusion: is this a great album? Yes it is, absolutely no doubt whatsoever. Is this a great Godflesh album? No. Very good, yes, great, no. I know i'm judging with double standards here, but for a band that is close to my heart and an integral part of my adolescence I wanted to be blown away, and I'm not. There's just no pleasing some people, eh?
www.merchantsofair.com- After rather smooth albums Godflesh learnt to hate again. Masterpiece. Crazy enough, this album is even danceable. So dance... into apocalypse
referencing A World Lit Only By Fire (LP, Album) AREC034
For being gone as long as they were, Godflesh have lost none of their trademark heaviness nor has Justin Broadrick mellowed as a vocalist. The rage remains, which is a remarkable feat to achieve given the length of time this pair have been at it. I know, I know, enough with the synopsis. Get to the money shot, press boy; permit me just one more brief rumination... oh to hell with it, here we go.
Guitars melded to heavy bass and a drum machine which by this point has to be on it's last legs. The abuse it has suffered imparts serious flavor, like a primordial stew composed of stinging nettles and scrap metal there is no respite; when one song ends another begins and continues doing what this band have always done so well: hammer nails into the corpse of popular culture. While a bunch of Ministry clones here in America experimented with metal in the 1990s and christened themselves some kind of flaccid wave, Godflesh did the unthinkable. They introduced a whole lot of awkward social introverts to a much wider array of metallic abilities, slowing things down and coating whatever they did in a blinding, impenetrable cloud of dubby soot.
They ground out their songs, as though the act of creating was based more on attrition than composition. I suspect it takes a lot out of them to do this sort of work. In a world full of secrets and shit G.C. and Broadrick tied their tracks down and pounded them into shape; a white hot testament of skill and mercurial power.
When I put on their newest, I was instantly transported back into their world. A place where tempos pulverize expectations and the low end of things boils over into everything else; the voice barks out vengeance, it tears away the niceties of etiquette like a barbarian loosed on fine bone china. Godflesh have no time to put on any kind of pretense, their music is a full on assault. You cannot win against their combination of body pummeling production and viciously corrosive message, the best you can hope to do is to survive. I mean, look at the title of this thing and consider what that world would be like. The crumbling remnants of civilization groaning as yet another layer of bile is thrown on for good measure.
There's a scene out of Carlito's Way where Benny Blanco from the Bronx takes a trip down some metal stairs and has the shit kicked out of him which the song "Imperator" is perfect for. Love the riffs on this one, man they're brutal. We're talking body in a wood chipper sort of malice with blood, bone and marrow spewing out in a cacophonous melody. Who wants steak?
Yes it's a very heavy business going on with our duo, uncompromising attitude. Music with all the subtlety of a back alley mugging and if you're a non-believer don't bother praying, your god is tied up in the basement with railroad spikes being driven into his eyes. Life is throttled into submission and to even consider rebelling only gets the boot put to the throat harder. No need for solos, no need to sing about the pretty people, the one constant is unrelenting anger; 'A World Lit Only by Fire' keeps the burn at a steady throb so don't wait for them to emerge from that fire because it isn't happening. They like it there and so do I; the fans are going to love this one, it doesn't try to be anything more than what it is which is fine. Just fine.
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