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A buzzing, industrial sound, a bass pulse, somewhere in the distance a noise, a scream. Distorted guitars offer a grinding melody that rolls like a broad dark river cluttered with storm flotsam. The tune evokes "Oh Shenandoah", a classic American folk song. After a couple of minutes, when the melody is kicked up an octave, it is like a beam of light on a dreary day, a shaft of hope. The bass pulse has an almost martial air; marching feet, marching to war? Drums like thunder, like canon… Welcome to the powerful, dynamic world of Canadian instrumental group Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

The album’s second piece—though sometimes it seems GY!BE albums are one arbitrarily divided work—is "Baby’s in a thundercloud." It opens with distant rolls of sky-drums with thin sheets of guitar skimming across the horizon. GY!BE are never in a hurry, letting their sonic tapestries unfold like a landscape seen in a dream. This dream gains altitude as it progresses, lifting the listener up towards… what? Or perhaps lifted away from the world and all its travails, its cruelty, the indiscriminate destruction. The quiet mid-section has a keening violin. Or a fiddle, rather; there is a rustic, grainy texture to the notes. When plaintive guitar lines flow in, it is sublime. Then, slowly, a riff emerges and builds, the layers becoming deeper and thicker. Both elegy and celebration, this thirteen minute piece will give you wings if you surrender.

"Raindrops cast in lead" is the emotional core of the album. Like many GY!BE pieces it starts quietly, spaciously, and builds. Rather than describe the music, I recommend meditating on the title. You may well get a vision of what the music is like; poetic, terrifying, beautiful. 

"Broken spires at dead Kapital," is a brooding threnody that could soundtrack a desolate, post-apocalyptic panorama. It flows into "Pale spectator takes photographs" whose doomy drumbeats and measured pace are the steps of the heavily laden. This piece builds in every aspect—drums, guitars, strings—in a way that is shockingly, thrillingly, uplifting. The resolution to a major chord is unexpectedly moving. In the context of what has preceded it, an extraordinary achievement. 

The final piece, "Grey rubble—green shoots" evokes the phrase often cited by civil rights activists and campaigners: “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds." Here, the most lush orchestral arrangement of the album turns the title into a requiem. It is exquisite and, at just under seven minutes, concise. Except, of course, that the beautifully designed vinyl edition adds a minimalist, though not entirely comforting reprise of this piece on Side D. 

Beautifully designed? The cover is nondescript. Nothing at all on the back, a front image that seems half-hearted, at best. It’s a simple photograph of a work space. Gear flight cases, folding chairs, a re-purposed milk crate; worn couch, cheap office table, the wall behind displaying what appears to be a series of cardboard boxes taped to the plaster. Inside, a different world. Slip the first LP out of the gatefold and the 12"x12" inner sleeve reveals an arid, three-quarters-sky landscape with four military helicopters flying in formation; deadly birds on the wing. Then there is this text on another inner panel: 

WAR IS COMING

DON’T GIVE UP

HANG ON

PICK A SIDE 

LOVE

Enigmatic? Prophetic? Ambiguous? Not so, the actual album title. Inside the gatefold, hand-written as if with a soft pencil or chalk, is the name of the eighth album by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. 

"NO  TITLE  AS  OF  13  FEBRUARY  2024  28,340  DEAD"

It is a very direct statement about the genocide in Gaza. The count was noted on that day. It was pushing towards forty thousand on 4 October 2024, the day of the album’s release. On the day this review was completed the Aljazeera web site placed the death toll at 44,167. 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor have chosen a side and delivered a powerful statement of their position. Love clearly has some heavy lifting to do.

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© Bruce Jenkins—November 2024