Jesu - Everyday I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came

Oh, how I have longed for a new Jesu release! I snoozed on the previous new material (the Duchess 7") and it sold out before I had even the slightest chance of even considering buying it, and now it is added to my neverending list of expensive shit to buy off Discogs. Trouble is, it's hard to find the money to keep up with all the new releases in the first place, doubly hard when there's a growing backlog of rare shit forever tempting you online! The woes of the record collector on a budget! Ha!

Everyday I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came is a fantastic and rather "in the feels" type of record title. That, along with the abstract cover art, which to me conjures feelings of times past, brings on the realisation that our time on this planet is a very short one indeed...only getting shorter and shorter with every passing second. Fuck this! When the first track, "Homesick", kicks in with the usual Jesu-brand laid back electronica meets heavy riffage and melancholic atmosphere, the feeling only gets heavier. I heard that Justin wrote a song about missing his kid whilst on tour, and whilst I'm not entirely sure that's true, the title "Homesick" could well reveal that this is that track. Maybe.

I don't really see Everyday... as an EP, even though it is only 5 tracks in length, "The Great Leveller" - which starts with a nice piano and builds and builds - is over 17 minutes long, bringing the total run time up to something like 45 minutes. Which is good value for money, seeing as we are on the subject! Well impressed with this new Jesu stuff...it ranks a lot higher than the recent Ascension album which I think a lot of people didn't really like and I never bought since I want all the Jesu stuff on vinyl and the vinyl version doesn't seem to be materializing anytime soon. It's no Silver, but I can see Everyday... becoming a Jesu must-hear with time. Justin Broadrick, you're a genius! My fandom knows no bounds (although I'm not that familiar with Techno Animal haha!).

As far as I can tell this was self-released by Justin and his Avalanche Recordings label. It's pretty limited, and the grey copies are all sold out, so I got the black. I'd get this before it's gone!

Pig Destroyer / Isis - Split 7"

This is one my favourite splits ever! Limited to 2000 copies thanks to Relapse Records. There is the usual Relapse 100 clear, 100 on orange, a bizarre 50 on white, and the remaining 1750 on black. I was lucky to get a black copy at a fairly decent price, but be wary that the white and orange pressings can fetch hefty price tags on record collector websites.

 

Classic Pig Destroyer are on top form, covering the goregrind legend that is (or was) Carcass. There is simply not a better version of "Genital Grinder / Regurgitation of Giblets" in existence. "Exhume to Consume" leaves a bit to be desired vocal-wise, but for the most part is an ultra-tight, lightening-fast zip through a classic track from the genre.

 

Isis on the other hand, opt for something a lot more slow and dirgy. With Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Jay Randall in tow they sucessfully create their own very unique version of the legendary Godflesh song "Streetcleaner". Not as sprawling in production as the original, but is almost suffocating with claustrophobia.

Unholy Grave / Total Fucking Destruction - Split 7"

 

 

Alas Babylon! What we get here from the forever excellent and fantastico! crazy grinders TFD are demo versions / different recordings of songs that appear on the Hater record, mixed with a few others for good measure. The sound is big and biting as usual, the clusterfuck drums ahead of the winding guitars. It is a condensed version of some of their excellent tracks and a great place to start if you've never heard their mental-as-fuck grindcore but don't want to commit to a full length record. 

You've also got the excellent and ever-prolific Unholy Grave on side B like a Japanese Agathocles. Suprisingly catchy for noisier-than-thee grind. One complaint is that the drums drown out everything else, but hey, it is still pretty awesome. The vocals are rabid as feck. Limited to 200 copies on black and 200 copies on white, this pressing by Bones Brigade is almost certainly out of print! It also comes with a limited mega handy dandy TFD patch.

Embalming Theatre / Intumescence - Split 7"

What I like about getting another Embalming Theatre split is that you can see what weird and wonderful art Mr. Gemmet has come up with time. This under-rated Swiss genius seems to squeeze out any pretentiousness from his surrealism before bashing it headways in full colour into the morbid, the sick, and the downright unusual. This rather colourful 7" sleeve features a very angry looking guy with wires in his mouth. These wires are subsequently, for some reason, hooked up to a vagina. Very well then.

Intumescence on the other side have actually named their EP very nicely. "Eyes Clotted with Dreams" isn't the type of reflective or insightful name you would usually expect from noisy, messy goregrind such as this, but I do sometimes like to be suprised. Musically, Embalming Theatre bring their usual plodding gargle'n'growl horror story grind recipe that works so well; maniacally swaying back and forth between low and high snare sounds, which is annoying at first until you realise actually how awesome it is. Intumescence almost come on to start like a muddy as fuck sludge band, before launching into a garbled, noisy assault of the senses. If you like horrible, noisy goregrind then you will like Intumescence.

This pressing is a lovely dark blood red; transparent yet thick enough to hold its own in the colour stakes. 100 copies exist, and I am proud to own one. The other 300 copies of this in existence are on black. The whole thing was released by the now sadly defunct Murder the World Records. This isn't my favourite Embalming Theatre split 7" but it is still pretty awesome.

PS I can't find a song off this record anywhere on Youtube so enjoy this little live video instead. Tops.