Rating: NNN
As the brains behind artsy, post-industrial drone band Jesu (not to mention founder of the highly influential Godflesh), Justin Broadrick has a remarkable talent. By seamlessly mixing bleak soundscapes and heavy rhythms with intimate and sedated melodies, he’s created an exciting musical paradox in Silver, the follow-up to last year’s crushingly melancholic self-titled full-length. His latest isn’t a departure so much as a remarkable extension of his previous work. Here, although instrumentation may vary with strings or sound manipulations, the most important feature is still the contradiction between soulless industrial heaviness and human emotion. The result is a work of musical art, as hypnotic and ethereal as it is challenging.