Justin Broadrick is a busy man. Which might come as a surprise to anyone who delves into the devastatingly deep, dark world of
Jesu. After a listen to
Jesu's self-titled first album one would expect the man to be too depressed to get up off the floor. But after a series of incarnations -- grindcore godfathers
Napalm Death and
Head of David, proto-industrialists
Godflesh, free jazz metalists
God, dub-hop pioneers
Ice, and the ambient electronic
Techno Animal and
Final -- it appears that
Broadrick works out his angst by being prolific. And
Jesu does indeed come off like therapy through sound, as lying under the surface of these bleak dirges lies an elegiac subcurrent than can be as uplifting as the angelic hymns of
Sigur Rós. In fact, that Icelandic band's soothing soundscapes can be seen as the yin to
Jesu's yang, the light to
Jesu's dark, the white angel wings to
Jesu's black pits of the underworld. But that is where any connection ends, because
Jesu is anything but treacle. The songs here seek to render rib cages and remove still-beating hearts for close inspection, to discover the exact nature and location of the human soul, even if it means sure death in the process. Bludgeoning down-tuned slowcore metal, electronic noise squalls and squelch, droning organs sounding like church bells, hair-raising discordant synth stabs, martial drumming and fuzzed-out electronic rhythms, and indecipherable ennui-laden vocals all serve to cater to fans of the experimental metal of bands like
Isis,
Neurosis, and
Pelican. Another unlikely comparison is
the Cure's
Pornography, with its layers and layers of echo, dense guitar and keyboard textures, funereal pace, and vocals saturated with existential dread. Song titles point to the obvious obsessions of the depressive: nihilism and misanthropy ("Friends Are Evil," "Tired of Me," "We All Faulter") and religious iconography ("Guardian Angel," "Walk on Water," "Your Path to Divinity").
Jesu's trip is a dark and lonely one, but those who survive the path through darkness are granted a glimpse of the light at journey's end.