Allelujah! Godspeed You! Black Emperor Are Back with “Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!”

By: Colin Rabyniuk –

For the first time in a decade, Montreal’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor have released a new album. The four-song, 53 minute epic was released at a show in Boston on October 1 without any announcement or pre-release media. Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! features two older, unreleased songs, now reworked and retitled, both resting comfortably around the 20 minute mark. The band has paired them with two shorter, darker tracks that they are calling “drones.” It’s a powerful return for the band, proving they have lost nothing since their last album, Yanqui U.X.O.

The opening track, “Mladic,” begins with a haunting sample of two distorted voices that pushes the album into a tense atmosphere. A heavy tone is plucked beneath them as a bubbling violin begins to play. Ringing feedback builds then gives way to bright pangs from several electric guitars. Quick percussion picks up and the listener is tight with anticipation for the next track’s powerful movement to begin. As the movement crescendos, the guitars are coloured with a dark and piercing distortion. The thunderous bass propels the band forward like a storm in the night. The band has never sounded so apocalyptic. Eventually the string section takes over for a beautiful effect.

“We Drifted like Worried Firewood,” the second of the two main tracks, slowly builds, adding a variety of layers until forceful violins become booming guitars that reverberate deeply. The music breaks and builds again, while the band’s percussion drives the song in a dour, creeping direction.

The shorter drones are two beautifully crafted noise tracks. They would not be out of place on an Earth record. On the CD version, the songs are stitched into the track sequence, while on the vinyl package they are cut onto their own 7″.

In the last decade, independent music has become more and more accessible. DIY is not only the norm but it’s also a marketing strategy. This is different from the 80s and 90s when DIY was the only way independent bands could operate; it set those bands apart. While more bands are choosing an independent approach, they often lack the same attitude that made the DIY aesthetic so important. Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s attempt to regenerate those old ideals. The band’s very form and function seems to serve as a protest to the plugged-in culture we inhabit. Each indomitable track, with its weighty range and dynamics, shirks any sense of easy gratification, instead pushing the listener towards a more gratifying relationship with the music and their environment.

Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! will be in stores worldwide on October 15^th.