Fans of Justin Broadrick’s work in Napalm Death and Godflesh who are still pining for a grindcore or frenetic industrial metal album from Jesu are hereby put on notice: it’s not gonna happen. The four songs on [italic] Lifeline are heavy in their own way, with detuned guitar and bass lines trudging relentlessly onward over half-time drums, but the overall tone is dreamlike, with Broadrick’s vocals floating up and down like a submarine in a dark pond and only occasionally surfacing to the top. Jarboe, the female vocalist from the Swans, sings on “Storm Comin’ On,” and while her vocals cut through the sludge more sharply, the track still has the same melancholic feel as the rest of the EP. Lyrically, Broadrick seems to acknowledge the departure from his past musical roots, and to those fans left wanting more thrash, he remains unapologetic. As he says in the closing track, “These scars don’t heal/I don’t mind/…I’ll be at peace/still inside.”
