Streetcleaner
| Streetcleaner | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Godflesh | ||||
| Released | November 13, 1989 | |||
| Recorded | May–August 1989 | |||
| Genre | Industrial metal | |||
| Length | 66:22 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | ||||
| Godflesh chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Chicago Tribune |  |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
Streetcleaner is the debut studio album by British industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on November 13, 1989, on Earache Records. Being influential in the development in the industrial metal genre, the album was widely praised by critics.
In 2017, the band released a live album, playing Streetcleaner in its entirety.
Justin Broadrick stated that the drum machine sound was heavily influenced by hip hop artists in the late 80s, particularly the beat on "Christbait Rising": "It was my attempt at copying the rhythm sample on 'Microphone Fiend' by Eric B & Rakim". The album cover is a shot from the third hallucination scene in the movie Altered States.
Streetcleaner was recorded in several sessions. The first five songs were recorded at Soundcheck in Birmingham, from May–August, 1989. The next five songs (nine on the second CD issue) were recorded at Square Dance in Derby in May, 1989. The last four songs were originally recorded as the Tiny Tears EP, which the band wanted the label to release as their follow up to the Godflesh EP. Earache Records, however, pushed the band to record a full-length album instead, and the Tiny Tears EP never saw an independent release. The tracks were instead later appended as bonus tracks to the second CD issue of Streetcleaner. The sample used at the beginning of the title track is taken from a recording of an interrogation of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.
Streetcleaner is regarded as one of the first albums to merge industrial rock and heavy metal music. Ned Raggett of Allmusic said, "Streetcleaner doesn't so much grind as crawl, but it does with an awesome, bass-heavy power", and "Drum machines shatter, shudder, and downright assault, while the riffs the two (or three) cook up are bludgeoning, well worthy of Broadrick's partial inspirations the Swans, arguably the best comparable forebear if one is talking about albums like Cop or Young God." In The Rough Guide to Rock, Richard Fontenoy said, "With the heaviest of metal riffs, slowed down to a crushing, claustrophobic pace and backed by a drum machine, Godflesh created a relentless, alienating wall of sound overlaid with feedback, samples, and Broadrick's misanthropic vocals." In The New Metal Masters, H. P. Newquist and Rich Maloof wrote, "Never before had one band incorporated metal, industrial, techno, and electronica into a single form—let alone one so sinister sounding." Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that while the vocals were typical of death metal.Rolling Stone critic Ian Christe noted that "Godflesh drew inspiration from such caustic industrial cults as Young Gods, Big Black and New York City's nightmare-inducing Swans. Heavy metal's riffs, screams and guitar solos were all jettisoned to make room for punishing mechanical rhythms, percussive bass guitar and gritty monochromatic guitar scrapes."
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