Nothing against Techno Animal or Curse of theGolden Vampire, but I am guessing that most of Broadrick's hardcorefans were just biding their time until he unleashed this long-rumoreddebut full-length from his new band Jesu. The album is released at avery serendipitous time, as the resurgence in interest and popularityof post-metal and noise rock has reached a fever pitch, just the righttime for Broadrick and crew to show everyone how things are reallydone. And show them he does, unleashing a longform rock album thatrecalls the best slow-burn doom metal and shoegazer psych-rock, withoutreally sounding like anything else other than itself. People willdoubtless attempt to refer to this as "metal," but it's no more "metal"than Godflesh ever was. Instead, it's a unique combination of elements:rumbling, speaker cone-obliterating bass to rival the mostbowel-voiding moments of Sunn O))) together with thick, textural layersof grinding, melodic guitar, powerfully sparse drums and a blindingwall of wintry keyboards. Broadrick's vocals are desolate and emotive,plaintive wails that are artificially time-stretched, vocodered andharmonized to stunning effect. With the heady sense of chillingambience provided by the synthesizers, I was reminded of Burzum's Filosofem,though the vocals share more in common with Alice in Chains or someother reference point bound to scare the beard-strokers away. The albumis composed of eight somber rock dirges of generous length, each onecompounding layers of distortion and echo throughout their length,filling the room with forceful surges of sound that funnel down noisywhirlpools or crest to awe-inspiring heights. Jesu is more than the sumof its parts. From a collection of essentially down-key, depressingmusical elements, the music at times achieves a sort of heavenlyspiritual transcendence. Case in point is track two, "Friends AreEvil," in which melody is provided by Broadrick's funereal, downcastvocal mantra along with ferociously belted guitar and punishing basscrunches. By the seven-minute mark, however, the song has becometriumphant and majestic, aspiring to the ecstatic "Jesu, Joy of Man'sDesiring" heights suggested by the band's name. The band's effect islargely visceral and thus difficult to translate into words, I amcertain this will please longtime fans of Broadrick as well as fans ofHydra Head, Southern Lord, Robotic Empire, and related businesses.samples:
Read More
