Whether or not it is his intention,
Justin Broadrick’s
Jesu project continues to move into ever more song-oriented material, while never lessening the volume or the sheer melodic thud of his attack. Opiate Sun is released on
Mark Kozelek’s Cabo Verde imprint. Initially, it was the first of a projected two-part EP idea;
Broadrick conceived of at least part of this set as a collaboration between the live (Dave Cochrane and Phil Petrocelli and the studio (Ted Parsons and Diarmuid Dalton) bands. It turns out that
Broadrick rejected this idea and plays everything here himself. Does that narrow the possibilities for the final product? Yes, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. These four songs take place in just under 26 minutes. The opener, "Losing Streak," comes dangerously close to a cough syrup-intoxicated
Swervedriver -- with
Broadrick’s way up-front vocal sounding not unlike that of
Adam Franklin, but it’s even heavier, sludgier, and conversely, more melodic. "Morning Sun," the closer, sounds like anything but. It is instead a dirgelike piece of droning, guitar-fueled funereal post-rock with a tortoise crawl of a vocal melody that extends no further than four notes in total. "Opiate Sun," the set’s longest piece, covers no new ground at all, but with its gorgeous multivalent guitar layers, slow processional drumming, and middle-timbre bassline -- the only thing not distorted on the cut -- it doesn’t need to, because its shattered emotion comes bleeding through in spades. "Deflated" is the most distorted, throbbing, metallic piece here. It too contains a lovely lyric line that contrasts wonderfully with the low, low, low-end bassline and open-tuned guitar riffs. While it’s true that
Broadrick continues to mine the same emotional and sonic terrain for each
Jesu release, it’s a sound so obsessive in its execution that it is nearly addictive for the listener. ~ Thom Jurek