Jesu - Conqueror AND Clandestine Blaze - Deliverers Of Faith

I was sick as all fuck yesterday so I decided to take a bath and flush out my sinuses and all sorts of pussy shit. So today I am uploading two albums. I figured a contrast between melodic and harsh would work so I am uploading Conqueror by Jesu and Deliverers of Faith by Clandestine Blaze.

Jesu is a project by Justin Broadrick who is of Godflesh and Napalm Death fame. The band reminds me of the early 90's shoegaze bands but heavier in tone. Or maybe even a more melodic Godflesh. They are a pretty hard band to classify as they have created their own sound, a flawless mix of ambient, shoegaze, drone and industrial. You can expect to have long songs that may be somewhat repetitive in nature. The vocals are ALL melodic and well done at that. Jesu make good use of synthesizers in their music instead of making the music sound cheesy (most new-wave), they compliment the music and create a nice balance between the sometimes crushing guitar riffs. Which leads me to this: the guitars are sometimes ridiculously heavy. On songs like Weightless & Horizontal the riffs are really reminiscint of Sunn O))) or Earth.

Standout tracks would be Weightless & Horizontal and Brighteyes. If you enjoy this check out Isis, Godflesh, Sigur Ros.

Conqueror

The second album is Deliverer's of Faith by Clandestine Blaze. Clandestine Blaze is the one man solo project of Mikko Aspa who also plays in Deathspell Omega. This is a pretty straightforward black metal album. It is in the vein of Darkthrone, maybe even so much as to call it a Darkthrone clone. The music is raw and aggressive. The production is pretty lo-fi but in a way that compliments the music (Darkthrone, Mayhem) instead of hindering it. The guitars are pretty standard black metal fare, fast tremolo picked riffs. One thing that sets it apart from Darkthrone and many other BM bands is the use of guitar solos. The vocals also aren't the usual black metal shrieks, but rather somewhat low shouts.

Standout tracks are Beyond the Reason and Tormented. If you enjoy this definitely check out Darkthrone and Mayhem.

Deliverers of Faith