Jesu

Justin Broadrick has a long history with heavy guitar. Most projects he's been involved in have focused on heaviness over strict attention to melody. Even Jesu's earlier album retained a concrete wall of guitar that floored the senses. However beginning with last year's Silver EP the sound of Jesu began to float in a murkiness that allowed elements of shoegaze, pop and dreamy drone to seep into Brodrick's melancholy world. The band's latest offering Conqueror reveals some of Jesu's most beautiful works to date. Simultaneously heavy and spacious; as if the concrete walls that hem in Broadricks world remain but they are so obscured by fog that only their outline is still visible. With a new concentration on pop sensibilities Jesu's songs have shrunk considerably in length, but the highlight here remains the typically epic 10 minute centerpiece, "Weightless & Horizontal." The rest of the album keeps it shorter; hazy vignettes of Broadricks obscured soul. Conqueror is out early this year on Hydra Head Records.

Download:
[MP3] Jesu -Mother Earth
[MP3] Jesu -Transfigure