Justin Broadrick’s music has always been heavy and loud. Whether it was Napalm Death’s legendary grindcore moving at the speed of crashing locomotives or the hypnotic and industrial grooves of Godflesh, Broadrick’s specialty is noise.
His new band, Jesu, continues the tradition, but this time out the sounds are slowed to a glacial and funereal mass of ambient instrumentation. Think Brian Eno joining The Melvins to record the mating calls of whales. The music on Conqueror is depressing, shimmering and an assault on the senses. Broadrick has made the best CD of 2007 so far, and somewhere beneath the foggy swamp of metal atmosphere lie the mellow melodies of a true noise-rock pioneer.