Daily Jam - Silver

There’s always that one song that serves as your entry point to an entire discography of any particular artist. The inciter. The catalyst. The first. That song can be wonderful and special in its own right, as it is the harbinger of music to come, but every so often it maintains. It keeps you carrying a torch for it. It stays firmly ranked among your favorites, never to be unseated by any other.

Jesu’s “Silver,” the title track from the band’s 2006 EP, is that song for me.

“Silver” was my introduction to Justin K. Broadrick and all of the lowness, the heaviness, and the beauty found in every note of his Jesu project. I have been a completist ever since, but nothing has ever topped those initial six minutes and change. There’s a certain shogaze-meets-heavy metal motif going on, both on the song and in much of Jesu’s other work, along with an almost cosmic feel that lends a sense of majesty and gravitas to the whole affair. “Silver” feels dense and layered, but also sprawling and epic, like you’re soaring high over existence or falling weightless forever.

The last two minutes are glory defined. I’ll never be able to get enough of it.