Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the notable Canadian post-rock outfit, are back with their first single LP-length release in over a decade: ‘Asunder, Sweet and Distress’.
As with all of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s work, one can assume the composition’s narrative will be spiritual in its telling. The album begins with “Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside of Light!'”. Powerful drums lead into a surge of distorted guitars accompanied by shrieking strings. Middle Eastern influences entrance your spirit into what feels like a procession into the unknown.
As the track progresses, everything is elevated and illuminated reaching its acclaim. The harmony lifts you up leaving your mortality behind. During this iridescence, Godspeed You! Black Emperor encourages you to ride along in the warm light of guitars with a thunderous distortion guiding you.
And just as you have ascended into your enlightenment, you are reminded that everything must come down in “Lamb’s Breath”. Droning clouds of noise envelope your ear drums leaving a feeling of eager anticipation for that electric high to take over again.
Minutes go by.
Like a slow dance in the desert, the shaking earth waits for those gray clouds of distortion to break open with a torrential downpour of harmonic relief—will it ever come? The static of guitars clings thick to the air—the electric charge waiting to strike down.
Patience.
The buzzing in your ears becomes more than just something you’ve created when “Asunder, Sweet” starts ringing on the clockworks of your mind. You can sense the sky is about to break open any moment with the slow oscillating buildup. Resonating guitars begin to stir you back to life while the bowing of distant strings whisper your conscience into awakening.
Again, patience.
The whirling noise amplifies every particle of sound and light in its path until it spits you out into the album’s last track, “Piss Crowns are Trebled”, and the skies finally burst at the seams to release a distorted dissonance of treble-y guitars and a rolling thunder of drums.
All at once, the valley floor of your mind is flooded with light leaving no room for noiseless shadows. Embracing the intense riffage of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s earlier work, every instrument has its voice while harmoniously creating the powerful composition telling what is to come.
In a grand sweep of amplified orchestration, you are gratuitously taken over by the downpour you’ve been awaiting. Its finale cleanses the distress of what is now an afterthought.
Crowned and glorified, Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s return is a showcase of where they have been, whether asunder or collectively, and that they’ll only be ascending to greater heights.
Oh, and how sweet it is.
Rating: 4.5/5