JESU

Justin Broadrick of Godflesh and (briefly, in one of their earliest lineups) Napalm Death fame offers up the debut album of Jesu, a drone metal project exploring the sonic territory that lurks between industrial metal and a bank of overworked vacuum cleaners. Fat, doomy riffs keep things varied, but the underlying drone never ceases, it merely evolves and grumbles as it is passed from instrument to instrument. Shoegazey influences creep in here and there, particularly in the vocals, though to be honest I consider them the weakest aspect of the album. (Of all the sonic features of shoegaze you could seek to imitate, I'd say the customary shoegaze vocal style should be at the bottom of the list - it was endearing in its original context but is just irritating outside of it.)

Something happened on the second release by JESU. While the debut seemed to seamlessly weave many different styles of rock together making drone metal seduce post-rock, shoegaze bow down to sludge metal and making misanthropic walls of sound conjure up true apocalypse, the second release CONQUERER just seems totally off from the get go. This album basically proves that throwing a bunch of different styles and genres into blenders don't necessarily result in a tasty nutritious smoothie. When such efforts work well it is hardly perceptible by the listener that much effort went into the creation of the final product but CONQUERER proves to me that despite all the ingredients pretty much being the same there are a couple factors that make this a much less enjoyable experience than the debut.

First of all Justin Broadrick who is the main dude of this gig suddenly decided to incorporate more vocal melodies to the music but at the same time decided to keep the music dark, gloomy and depressive but yet sounds like he's trying to audition for a more cheerful indie pop band such as Animal Collective or My Morning Jacket. While this doesn't sound like a bad idea on paper, the truth is that at least in the final results of this particular album doesn't quite work for me. It ends up sounding like one of those black metal albums going clean vocal style but decide to keep the timbres of the instruments the same. The depressive instruments are now trying to be cheerful and the chord progressions and distortions totally derail as the whiney vocals try to paint some indie rock rant of millennial depressiveness.

Yeah, the idea is worthy of trying but with the diminishing of drone effects and the chipper attempts to brighten up the lyrical content sounding like Radiohead attempting to play with Boris just doesn't quite pull it off. As much as i've tried to get into this album, it just leaves me cold not because it's trying to leave me cold which if successful would leave me at least lukewarm but because it utterly fails in the balancing act of making these disparate worlds fuse together properly. Although i prefer a band to take risks and experiment with sounds, i have to say that this risk didn't pay off and makes me want to instantly revert back to the debut album rather than pursue any future releases. Not a good strategic career building move if you ask me.

JESU is the creation of Justin Broadrick who needed a new project after the breakup of Godflesh. While on the debut EP "Heart Ache" it was a one man show, on this eponymous debut album he created a post-metal power trio by inviting bassist Diarmuid Darmuid (Cable Regime, Final, Iroha, Greymachine, Council Estate Electronics) and drummer Ted Parsons (Swans, Prong, Buckethead, Legendary Pink Dots, Killing Joke) to join the feedback and fuzz distortion party. The band adds extra bassists and drummers for touring to fill the thicker than reality sound spectrums heard on their studio albums where they achieve atmospheres that i never dreamed possible.

JESU creates an interesting hybrid of various strains of post-rock and industrial metal rhythms wrapped up in a sludgy drone feedback fuzz that more often than not bleeds into harsh shoegaze. While the first track "Your Path To Divinity" sounds like the drone metal band Earth meets Mogwai song structures, on the second track "Friends Are Evil" we hear a total change of sound bringing the industrial metal Godflesh ties to the forefront. This track is even more distorted and has interesting intermittent guitar squeals. The third track "Tired Of Me" takes another completely new sound altogether beginning with an ethereal and detached Sigur Ros type of sound. It moves on to a slow distorted march with Broadrick belting out his buried depressive lyrics from the suffocating din.

The beautiful thing about this album is how diverse the rhythms and melodies are despite the tones, timbres and distortion being fairly uniform. Post-rock and industrial doom metal trade places while a steady brutally dissonant melody is usually keeping the echoes and grungy noise in its proper boundaries. The vocals tend to be of the same style but there is a surprise on "Man / Woman" where they are more of a Neurosis type death metal growl. The tracks are quite lengthy with the shortest around the seven minute mark but somehow it all unfolds in a rather satisfying manner. Actually i feel like i hear some Kayo Dot influence on here as well especially from "Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue" album where power chords pummel the senses. The only difference is the dissonance and prog time sigs aren't as prominent.

While the distortion reminds me a lot of the drone metal Earth meets the sludge metal of Boris, JESU manage to incorporate enough variety throughout the 74:30 long album to keep me happy. The production is noisy as hell but professionally done as to eke out every possible note and rhythmic dynamism. This album has a hellish doomy feel like few others and seems only to get better as it progresses towards the final tracks. This is my first encounter with JESU but after discovering this excellent debut release, it certainly won't be my last. Don't let the post-rock packaging fool you. This is full-fledged shoegazy atmospheric post sludge metal all the way.

Progressive? Maybe, perhaps. Brilliant? Without a doubt. First let me adress this little issue, Jesu are not necesarily Prog and even I (a HUGE fan) am not sure that they belong on this website, they tend to fall more on the Shoegaze side of the spectrum rather than the Post/Prog side. Jesu are one of my all time favorite bands, and to me this is their definative work if this were not an exclusivly prog site I would not think twice to give this five stars, but this site constantly asks me not to hand out fives and I will comply. Now as for the music! I absolutely adore Jesus fuzzy distorted powerfull guitar, lumbering drums, crushing bass and evocative samples and on this EP they are at their best. Silver is a brilliant song it has perfect melody and warm fuzzy timbre that combines with the slow burning vocals and emotional lyrics to form my favorite all time feel good song. Whenever I am down and need a spritual uplifting track Silver is the song i reach for most often. I actually can not say enough good things about this song. Silver may be the weakest song on the EP, but even then it is still verry good. It is a little more upbeat wich gives it an almost post-hardcore or emo vibe but unlike most post-hardcore songs it has interesting insturmentation and great use of samples. The last two songs Wolves and Dead eyes really blend together to me forming a wonderfull suite of hypnotic fuzz and rythim that envelopes the listener and resonates with the mind. These two songs together put me in a mood that only the greates Post-Rock and Kraut can. The way in wich Jesu achieves this sensation is totally different though as they rely more on the counterpoint between the textures of synthetic laptop loops and the immediacy of fuzzy melting guitar riffs. These must be heard to be understood.

Again, I would give this five stars but in the realm of progressive rock I simply can not consider it essential.

Wonderful modern shoegaze.

Jesu's second album represents a brilliant blend of post rock, indie and shoegaze sensibilities. The sound here is unique and distinct, and works brilliantly within nearly pop-based song structures to create a maze of guitar chugs and lush vocal work. Jesu creates a near masterpiece full of spacey and open and flawlessly links distorted, downtuned guitar with octaved keyboard chords and heavy drummery.

The album is repetitive in parts, but is always incredibly beautiful even in its heavier moments; this is no mean feat, as many bands who work around guitar chug rhythms fail to create truly heartwrenching tunes like these without resorting to boring cliches and unnatural sounding emotion. What we are essentially given here is an hour of heavy post rock, with distinct textures and atmospheres to help define and separate this band.

This album is brilliant to space out to, featuring heavy use of delays and reverbs to create dense sound mazes. The opening track features a very post-rock sound, without reverting to the typical stereotypes many associate with the genre. Throughout it's 58 minutes, there are moments of beauty (Conqueror) great sadness (Weightless & Horizontal) and melancholy regret (Medicine). The lyrics on this album are incredibly noteworthy, memorable, beautiful and appropriate to the music. Take the lyrics from the longest piece, Weightless & Horizontal for example:

Try not to lose yourself I'm way past trying I'm way past caring I'm way past hoping

Try not to lose yourself You're always needing You're always hoping Wash away your tears

Try not to lose yourself

Truly poetic and beautiful, these lyrics are heartwrenching when combined with the brilliant melody and guitar work on this track.

Although brilliant in many places, this work unfortunately falls short of true greatness, and does not strike me as a masterpiece, but remains a brilliant modern album.

4 stars.

Would someone write a review for this poor album? I think I will.

Not the greatest piece of work I've ever heard but it still makes for a fairly pleasent listening experience. The almost ambient-metal this thing is really blew my mind first listen but second time (this is a flaw) it got boring.

The piece itself is a massive and epic piece of work which should recieve some credit for the sheer almost metaphorical willpower it displays. From doom metal vocals to slow ambient parts to heavy guitars that seemingly emanate into your ears, this thing trudges on for nearly 50 minutes on one wild trip.

Good recording, only problem:

First listen = WOW Second listen = Meh...

After hearing the album "Conqueror" I went to the "Silver" EP, as it's generally one of their most acclaimed releases. But I was disappointed, not only it remains exactly the same sound and style as "Conqueror" as the music here seems to be much more uninspired.

The EP kicks in with "Silver", the beginning with some kind of classic instrumental (I would give it a shot but I don't want to miss the target), making a very beautiful melody, well at first I didn't like this song, but it has grown on me and it's really really beautiful, although the chorus ("silver is just another gold") always in repeat ends boring me a little. My big problem with "Silver" comes next, "Star", is the last thing you could expect from Jesu. It is a upbeat and happy song and is driven by the most annoying and off-place drum beat ever! The melodies are also uninteresting and the songs seems totally off of the context of the EP, or even of the context of the band...

"Wolves" is next and comes back to the traditional sound of the band, although even slower than usual, it's a very pretty and minimal song, not outstanding but very good. And finally "Dead Eyes", it's a mostly electronic closer to the EP, interesting but it never really caught me...

It's a good release, but it seems lacking inspiration and "Star" really ruins it for me, however, even being in the same vein of "Conqueror" it is much more varied than that one.

The tags that are usually given to Jesu's music are usually, in my opinion, very wrong: Jesu is not post-rock, it is not drone and I can't really see where in the world could this be doom metal. I know, it's one of their releases and I haven't listened to the early works, but really, this is shoegaze, in its noisy and depressing tradition.

The first two songs are the most straight-forward ones, and they are quite good, the first few notes of the album are very gorgeous and build up very well. Then come the calmer songs, and my two favorite ones, both "Transfigure" and "Weightless & Horizontal" have achingly beautiful melodies and very dreamy instrumental, really delightful music.

The album is pretty regular and contains more beautiful music ("Bright Eyes"), but it doesn't vary a lot, I guess there's not too much to vary after all in this kind of music. Anyway, a beautiful album and definitely a must-ear for fans of depressive, sparse and dreamy music.