Hymns is full of slow drowning songs. The grit and chunkiness of Justin Broadrick's guitar work is at an all time high. Beneath the dark and heavy guitar licks is GC Green, a monster of a bass player. I've never heard a bass guitar weeping and crying out for help. The sheer abuse of his instrument is right below that of Broadrick's. Green likes to keep his bass on the very edge of death, and his delight in the torture of his bass is just plain sadistic. Ted Parsons rounds the veterans off with the skills that he brings to the drums. Well, I wouldn't say drums..I'd say skins because I'm sure they're made out of actual stretched skin. His beats and his rhythms have a nice tribal vibe working, and it only adds to the choking atmosphere that Green and Broadrick have created. Godflesh continues to reinvent and push the envelope of dark atmospheric and moody music.

Everything is subservient to the mammoth. Often heavily torqued guitar and bass, and brute force rules over every other consideration for the most part. This may be the most consistently heavy and unrelenting thing they've ever done. People hep to the likes of Electric Wizard and Goatsnake who previously would have been put off by the frequent experimental forays into loops and sonic ugliness (or the drum machine) should find this collection of riff-heavy uberfuzz death dirges more to their liking.

Hymns is pure Godflesh. The music is based around Justin and his riffs, which makes the album resemble Selfless more than any of their other albums. In fact, Hymns is the most riff-oriented Godflesh album so far. And although the long passages of guitar screeching and noise are gone, the dissonant riffs are still here. It sounds much more organic than their previous albums. I think this is due to two factors. One, the album is comprised of guitar riffs, and not noise. And two, Ted Parsons provides the drumming.