Justin Broadrick has long been a progressive influence in heavy music, from his pioneering work in industrial legends Godflesh to the stunning ambient/drone soundscapes of Final or any one of his other countless side projects. His output under the Jesu moniker has seen him marry shoegaze blur with metallic heft to remarkable effect.
Like its predecessors, Every Day I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came features pretty melodies nestling snugly inside woolly swathes of distortion, guitars chiming and chorusing around languid drum patterns and gargantuan low-tuned bass, while distant vocals float airily over glacial tempos. It’s a warm, enveloping sound, a reassuring lullaby for those who like their music loud, and on this outing Broadrick has produced a couple of bona fide classics. The aptly-named ‘Comforter’ eases into view with resonant guitar stabs, echoing effects and rising synths, while wordless vocal glitches flitter around the mix. Bass, drums and chunkier guitar gradually emerge and are joined by proper vocals, but the track never builds to the predictable crescendo; instead it constantly shifts in tone and texture, instruments and effects dropping in and out in mesmerising fashion. Sort-of title track ‘Everyday’ is just as good, its guitars ringing beautifully over a slow-mo rolling rhythm, the woozy feel becoming increasingly hypnotic as it progresses.
Unfortunately, the other three tracks don’t hit these heights. Album bookends ‘Homesick’ and ‘Grey Is The Colour’ are Jesu-by-numbers, decent enough but lacking in Broadrick’s usual creative spark. In contrast, ‘The Great Leveller’ suffers from no such dearth of ambition; rather, its disjointed seventeen-minute sprawl tries too hard to splice different ideas together into an epic, thus wasting them all. Its opening section in particular is a potential standout, a gorgeous segment of swelling post-rock backed with a martial beat which is cut down before its prime. It all makes for a frustrating album, one with plenty to recommend it but which ultimately feels like a missed opportunity. Lee Gorman
