Heart Ache & Dethroned

Both of the records on this expanded reissue are rooted in the beginning stages of Justin Broadrick’s Jesu project, but the Dethroned EP wasn’t wrapped until 2010. Because of this, you’re basically getting a six-year snapshot of how the singer/multi-instrumentalist shed the industrial strength shackles of Godflesh — and to a lesser extent, the post-apocalyptic productions of Techno Animal — in favor of cloudier pastures. “Metalgaze” music, if you will, although there’s more going on here than guttural guitars and the exorcised spirit of Kevin Shields, circa 1991. In the case of Jesu’s first proper record, 2004’s Heart Ache EP, Broadrick serves up a pair of 20-minute pieces that graze everything from piston-powered rhythms to sludge-caked doom riffs. Not to mention a piano progression or two. As for Dethroned, it features four tracks that hover around the seven-minute mark and err more on the staring-at-the-sun side of things. Whether this is a hint of what’s to come next or not, it’s yet another compelling chapter in the evolution of a true heavy-metal icon.