Jesuit is the kind of band that your older brother (I would say sister, but women should hate this band now just like they did back then… for more information get a physical copy of this and read the ridiculously humorous liner notes) shows you when he catches you listening to some terrible pop or even the latest trend of stupid “death core” (seriously when you describe your own band as “electronica tinged deathcore” go die) and sets you on a terrible course of self destruction; all of you younger brothers out there are welcome (again, sorry to exclude the ladies) for the acts of we the older brothers of the world, and really there is no other way that you little turds learn about good music besides our influence.
Make no mistake, Jesuit is a hardcore band through and through in an “era” of hardcore, circa 1997 (give or take 3 years), that saw the birth or rise of quite a few bands today both widely known (Converge, the Dillinger Escape Plan, where two members would eventually crop up in towards the end of Jesuit) and a little more obscure (Botch, Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye, Bloodlet, Cable, and probably hundreds more that I could rattle off with no problem) that all left their mark on the current crop of hardcore. Similarly to some of their previously mentioned brethren, Jesuit are a noisy cacophony of squealing guitars, crunchy bottom end, and harsh vocals that deftly maneuver through slow noise dirges (“Cop Glasses”) to odd timed noisy hardcore (“Servitude”, “Car Crash Lullaby” ) to something in between (see “Your Sharp Teeth”) all complete with a sass and vigor that puts many modern bands to shame. This in no way pigeon holes Jesuit into some niche corner because everything on this discography simply slays, and had this batch of miscreants put this out (for the first time) and toured today, they very well could be the darlings of media and hipsters alike with a slew of others attempting to bite off their style and misanthropic panache.
Ah Jesuit, why did you leave us so before your time with only a few slabs of vinyl and plastic with which to sate our collective desire to have our heads bashed in by that noisy raucous which you so skillfully raised with your releases and live performances? Not only has anything from Jesuit become scarce in some sense, but the lack of any real mention by the current hardcore crowd (be it listeners, bands, media, etc) has rendered the band a true overlooked powerhouse that only scarce pockets ever truly appreciated the group in any manner; but all of this is now remedied with the long coming release of Jesuit’s discography by Magic Bullet, and let me tell you that this is one hell of a release (boardering on “should be classic”) that needs to be heard just short of immediately.