Warthur 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.)

siLLy puPPy 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.

siLLy puPPy 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.

The Truth Honestly, I was quite blown away by this release after the tiring Infinity album. This is shoegazing post-metal at it's best and Jesu have definitely released a truly great record.

Prepare to space out while listening to this album but the particular space-out it creates is not one that makes you forget you're even listening to music. On the contrary, it's one of those space-outs where the listener feels completely coherent yet in a different world entirely.

Nostalgia coats this album with a melancholy film that I know I for one indulge in. It's a great record to just lay back and let soak in because it can be really angsty and also really moving at the same time.

One of the best albums this year, everyone should check it out.

The Truth 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 ambiance this album contains really blew my mind first listen but second time (this is a flaw) it got kind of 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...

Jesu's next release is much, much more consistent and one of the best albums of 2011.