This is going to be a mixed review. Jesu’s self-titled, debut full-length release is a good album, but quite different than their first recorded output, Heartache. And it’s difficult not to compare s/t disfavourably to Heartache. To begin with, the tracks on s/t are considerably shorter. The album itself is 74 minutes, but the individual tracks average around 7 or 8 minutes. Which is fairly long, yes, but on Heartache the two tracks are both around 20 minutes each, which give them a much more epic feel and a sense of grandeur that s/t lacks. The length of the Heartache tracks demands a more experimental structuring; as such, the s/t tracks feel markedly conventional, in comparison, displaying less structural and harmonic variation. In fact, harmonically speaking, s/t verges on monotonous. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it contributes to an overall coherence to the album – endowing it with continuous and enveloping sense of atmosphere – but a little more melodic variation might be welcome. Likewise a bit more rhythmic variation: while Heartache pounded and grooved, s/t plods with 4/4 rhythms and hardly any syncopation. Which, again, does contribute to the overall sense of envelopment, but, again, with the length of the album a little more variation might make the disc a little easier to listen to in its entirety.

Much of this may come down to the performers. While Justin Broadrick performed everything on Heartache, Jesu now is much more of a band. Broadrick (keyboards, guitars, vocals) is joined by Diarmuid Dalton on bass and Ted Parsons (who played on Godflesh’s Hymns and previously in Prong and Swans) on drums. There is no question that Parsons is a very technically proficient drummer, but he is perhaps not the most interesting player. His steady, straight-forward beats (with a hint of Prong-like groove) worked nicely on Hymns, but on this album with the more straight-forward guitar riffs, there is a lot more room for percussive movement and experimentation that again would help in making the album more engaging.

Now it’s not really fair to judge an album entirely in comparison to its predecessor, nor should one expect an artist/band not to change, though I’m sure others also judged the Heartache ep as an indicator of things to come. Maybe they were similarly disappointed; maybe they weren’t. And I don’t want to give the impression that I dislike this album. Despite the above criticisms, I do think this is a powerful album full of atmospherically enveloping songs nicely juxtaposing guitar heaviness with pretty, pop-like keyboard and vocal melodies and floating ambience. The opening track "Your Path to Divinity" stands out as one of the stronger tracks with its slow, melancholy progression. The second to last track, "Man/Woman", is my favourite, as it provides a welcome change in texture and tone, picking up the aggression and intensity, revisiting a more Godflesh-like sound with its pummeling riffs and heavier vocals, while still retaining the Jesu sensibility of ambience and immersion.

Jesu is Justin Broadrick’s new project after the dissolution of his seminal band Godflesh. Those who know Godflesh’s last album, Hymns, might recognize the name Jesu as the title of the last track on that record. Which seems fitting, both symbolically and sonically: "Jesu," the song, a doorway, so to speak, leading from one project to another. Jesu, the project, is not remarkably different than Godflesh, though. If Jesu is a phoenix rising from Godflesh’s ashes (to mix my metaphors a bit), its colourings may be different but it’s still the same bird.

Heartache is nominally an ep, containing two tracks with all instrumentation provided by Broadrick, but those two tracks clock in at 20 minutes so this might as well be a full-length album. There is a certain ebb and flow to those two tracks – seemingly disparate sections merged together, those mergings gradually making sense as the songs progress – that gives a sense of more than two tracks and keeps you engrossed. Some adjectives to describe the music? Monolithic, punishing, atmospheric, pretty, trance-like... which may seem antithetical, but Broadrick masterfully combines these elements to create engrossing music. Mechanical drum-machine rhythms and heavy, churning guitar/bass riffs – sometimes bludgeoning, sometimes groovy – overlaid with atmospheric, bell-toned guitar melodies and keyboard lines surging out of those riffs, and Broadrick’s habitual vocals-as-another-instrument lyrics floating along the surface.

Which probably sounds just like more Godflesh. And you wouldn’t be mistaken. There isn’t a lot of difference, really. There is more reliance on keyboards with Jesu (which did take some getting used to, as they initially seemed a bit obtrusive) and, if anything, the tracks are even more drawn out, slow-evolving, and repetitive than Godflesh. This does heighten the more hypnotic or trance-like quality of Jesu but perhaps makes it more demanding for the listener, requiring more patience or careful listening. A better sonic blueprint for Jesu isn’t the song from Hymns, but the last track on Godflesh’s Selfless, "Go Spread Your Wings" with all its epic grandeur, hypnotic ambience, and icy bleakness. If you like that song, you’ll like Jesu.