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jesu

Self Titled

Jesu

Hydrahead

2005

The debut full length album from former Godflesh frontman Justin Broadrick, is a solid, bass-fueled maelstrom of noise, emotion and rumbling intensity. As someone not particularly familiar with Godflesh, I approached this with a certain degree of ignorance about Broadrick's previous musical incarnations. But I can honestly say I was not disappointed by this.

Eight tracks, each one pushing at 10 minutes in length, you'd be forgiven for thinking there is only so much sonic crushing you can take. But there is so much more on this album than mere low end thunder. A wealth of almost painful emotion washes through tracks like Your Path to Divinity and Sun Day. Album highlight Friends Are Evil is marked by it's noise burst intro and pounding bass, which leads the way for crushing guitar. And then Broadrick's quiet, haunting vocal comes in and seizes you. And then, all that noise gives way to a melodic outro of keyboards and wha-wha guitar.

The sound is fairly simple, stripped down sounding. But there is complexity in this. By using a very basic pallet of instruments and sounds, Broadrick has created a monolithic sound, a juggernaught of ghostly mass, that rides over you, leaving you breathless.

Review - Kenny Mooney