God - Breach Birth

For the first real post we have God's first release, Breach Birth.  God was a behemoth of a band fronted by Kevin Martin (currently of The Bug and King Midas Sound) and featuring a lineup of anywhere from 8 to 12 people with multiple drummers and bassists.  They put out three full lengths and a few singles and eps of pummeling, scorching, heavy slabs of transcendent free jazz/noise rock until imploding under their own weight.  This band, at various points, featured members of Slab!, 16-17, Head of David, Oxbow and also John Zorn who produced their album Possession.  Most notable though was the inclusion of one Justin K Broadrick who produced the first couple releases before joining the band.  He and Martin would go on to collaborate on numerous projects over the next ten years.  Sadly, all of God's material is out of print and will most likely stay that way.  It can all be found relatively cheap if you are patient and I would recommend getting all of it.

If I seem overly gushing about them it should be noted that this blog takes its name from a God track, so that should say something. 

Breach Birth, released by Situation Two, is a monster of a 12".  The A side, Meat Head, is an eight and a half minute onslaught of a heavy repetitive beat, monolithic bass, vicious vocals and blistering, dissonant sax and guitar.  This track shows what they would become on their later releases while having a more melodic, almost psych-rock feel with the guitars that was gone by their next release.  The B side features two tracks, Swine Fever and Crash Victim and is about 4 minutes long in total.  These are pretty unique in the God catalog for their brevity.  These are just as heavy as the A side but have more of a noise rock feel to them.  More like being stabbed than bludgeoned.  All in all as good a first release for a band as any you'll find.

God - Breach Birth in Flac