Justin Broadrick did it again – another JESU record, another reflection of a generation’s state of mind. Exaggerated? Maybe. But anyway, Ascension could very well be the soundtrack of literally thousands and thousands of end-twenty / thirty-somethings, who get sluiced out of schools and universities into daily work live; who sit in trains or cheap cars on their way to work, where they keep staring with empty eyes into a grey and numb future with nothing to gain. Monotony and the sweet stench of melancholy is what their lives are all about, thus Ascension fits this mood perfectly.
Somewhere in between Industrial, Doom, Shoegazing and Post Rock, Ascension exists, just like all of JESU’s work. All the anger that was present in Godflesh years back got replaced by a really overshadowing dose of melancholy, a certain feeling that there’s just no use of being angry anymore, or happy. Not even really sad. It all just doesn’t matter anymore in our postmodern times.
Now that sounds as if Ascension wouldn’t be a great record, but in certainly is. The songwriting is great, the songs are epic and perfectly transport this feeling I talked about. Countless of (ridiculously downtuned) guitar layers, slow speeds, melodic, shy vocals – every ingredience JESU ever had is still there and is still great. It’s not an extreme record. You listen to it, you drown in it. Strong emotions get lost, you get wrapped up in melancholy and bitterness. It might be a bit more Pop than JESU’s previous works, and the sound of the instrumentation feels more organic, but that’s just fine. Ascension is another shureshot from Broadrick, embracing the hopelessness and melancholy of a postmodern generation.
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