Terminus＜限定盤＞

Justin Broadrick spent much of the 2010s busy with projects such as the reunited Godflesh and his techno moniker JK Flesh, while his post-metal outfit Jesu largely fell silent after 2013s Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came, apart from collaborations with Sun Kil Moon and Dirk Serries. Jesu returned in 2020 with the experimental pop EP Never, which preceded the full-length Terminus. Retaining the projects signature blend of metal and shoegaze with electronic and pop elements, the albums stated themes include rejection, nostalgia, and loneliness, with Broadricks lyrics reflecting constant notions of failure, anxiety, uncertainty, and apathy. Its emotionally heavy while expressing a severe emptiness that seems impossible to overcome, and yet its expected, even comfortable territory for the band. When I Was Small kicks off the album with clear drums, guitar riffs frayed with distortion, and an immediately familiar-sounding vocal melody, as Broadrick laments the disconnection he feels in the present by looking back to a time when he at least tried to feel included. Alone is closer to the pop-informed sound of Never, with backwards vocal loops providing strangely sweet accompaniment to Broadricks yearning lyrics, and more urgent melodies imbuing the song with a sense of hope. His voice is altered to resemble a pitched-up robotic warble on Consciousness, which contains drifting, atmospheric guitars over a measured, bassy drum machine throb. Two tracks in the middle of the album, Terminus and Sleeping In, trudge along for nearly ten minutes each, both seemingly plagued with unresolved guilt. The last track is an instrumental called Give Up, but its actually more upbeat than the rest of the album, with delicate electronic pulses simmering underneath a wavy froth of guitar effects and synth melodies, ultimately conveying the feeling that even if all hope is gone, its still possible to get through life and come to a sense of acceptance, if not satisfaction or resolution. ~ Paul Simpson