Godflesh set penultimate album 'Decay' for September 25

Godflesh will release their 10th studio album, 'Decay,' on September 25 through Relapse, and the industrial metal duo are calling it the penultimate record before they wind the project down for good, Metal Injection, The Quietus and SPIN reported on August 12. The band also shared the album's lead single, 'Living/Ending.'

"Music, for me, is rarely complete, but it has to reach a point where enough is enough," Godflesh's Justin Broadrick said of the decision to end the band's run, calling the process a matter of creative self-discipline.

'Decay' spans six tracks, 'Master and Slave,' 'Living/Ending,' 'Feral Colony,' 'Fear of Man,' 'Fodder' and 'Consume Me,' and grew out of the same recording sessions as 2023's 'Purge.' Broadrick said he split one large pool of songs between the two albums, then spent roughly two years searching for a new label home before Decay found a place at Relapse.

The album carries a physical toll, too. Broadrick had abdominal surgery earlier this year for a hernia he said was largely caused by years of shouting in Godflesh, and while the album's vocals were recorded before the operation, parts of two songs were tracked while the hernia was already causing him pain; the record was then mixed after surgery, while he was still in discomfort.

Godflesh formed in 1988 and has released nine albums, including a hiatus from 2002 to 2009 and the 2014 comeback EP 'Decline & Fall.' Broadrick said the physical demands have made continuing the band impossible, adding that he wants to "move out of its constraints" and keep making heavy, ugly music on new ground. 'Decay' is billed as the second-to-last Godflesh album, due September 25 and now logged on the release calendar, meaning one more record will follow before he and bassist Ben Green close the project for good.