Vanguard Party

Ascension was released this month on CD and MP3 (Caldo Verde Records) with positive but inconsistent critical acclaim. A vinyl release is expected before the end of May via Aural Exploits, if Broadrick's Twitter feed is to be trusted.

Time's clearly passed since Broadrick's Godflesh raised the stakes for every contemporary, practicing musician. Either time has weathered Broadrick differently than it's weathered me, or listening to Mobocracy, the M.D.C./Restarts split, has temporarily ruined me for epically moody droning.

Track four's title, "Sedatives," well characterizes how this album struck me for the first few listens: remember when Reznor seemed to quit meth and effectively and permanently transform Nine Inch Nails' sound in the process? To a huge Jesu fan who's been listening to Mobocracy nonstop since early April, that was my first impression of Ascension. Over time, that feeling disintegrated and I've learned to appreciate Ascension for the tremendous success it is.

Without the liner notes, it's difficult to pull off a review in my usual style. Courtesy of the A.V. Club's Jason Heller, I know only this of the lineup: Ted Parsons (Prong, Godflesh, Swans) is back on drums...and it shows.

"Sedatives" is characteristic of Ascension, but not in the derogatory way. Parson's driving drumcraft compels a track with not-quite growling guitar; Broadrick's vocals are almost marginal: no growls, no aggression, no spite evident in Broadrick's delivery; muddied, subdued lyrics may very well create an ironic tension with the delivery, but without a lyric sheet, it's impossible to discern.

"Black Lies" features a little more dissonance in the guitar, but nothing quite unsettling. Broadrick's vocals are buried in reverb and again difficult to make out. The music comes in ebbs and flows, alternating between a very dopey lullaby to crescendo's making a very poignant but unfortunately indistinct point. The track concludes with two brilliant guitar stutters and a droning resolution. I'd give my teeth to know what the conflict was.

The final track is also the title track and the album's shortest at 2.75". It a gentle, guitar-focused track with acoustic accents; it's lyric free and a straight forward and gentle release from the droning trance induced by its predecessors.

The opening track, "Fools," is also Ascensions longest. Its gentle guitar and drum introduction is deceiving. After the first verse, "see these fools that surround us" (a line that will repeat as the song's intensity increases), guitar and drums kick in with relative intensity and some righteous chugging without breaking the drone. It ebbs and crests over it's eight-minute course, while Broadrick's vocal's likewise vary in affect ever so slightly.

Like Conqueror, Jesu's second LP, Ascension is "deeply melodic, ploddingly slow, and emotionally melancholic" (Thom Jurek). The melancholic is at a premium here, however, while the "heaviness" Jurek finds in Conqueror is fleeting, spotty, but nevertheless always appropriate. In his vocals, Broadrick is consistently pensive, restrained, almost chemically subdued on this third full-length. Without a lyric sheet, I can still safely claim this is an absolutely unified and cohesive release. Even without the lyrics, give repeated listening, Ascension is also one of Broadrick's most compelling.

If you like [blank] you might like Jesu.