LUCIFERIAN TOWERS
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
•Post Rock/Math rock
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Studio Album, released in 2017 Songs / Tracks Listing 1. Undoing A Luciferian Tower (7:47) - David Bryant / guitar, keyboards
LP Constellation - CST126 (2017, Canada) and to Quinino for the last updates Edit this entry |
Buy GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR Luciferian Towers Music
![]() | Luciferian Towers Constellation 2017 | $10.80 $7.19 (used) |
![]() | Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Luciferian Towers (180g) Vinyl LP Constellation | $26.95 |

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GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR Luciferian Towers ratings distribution
(78 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(26%)
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(23%)
Good, but non-essential (28%)
Collectors/fans only (14%)
Poor. Only for completionists (9%)
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR Luciferian Towers reviews
Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings
Collaborators/Experts Reviews
PROG REVIEWER

There's also more of an air of hopefulness on Luciferian Towers than in previous Godspeed works. Whilst recent releases had backed away a little from the unrelenting pessimism of their earliest work, here the album ends on a positively triumphant note. It's a strong return to form after the experimentation of Asunder, Sweet and proves that there's still gas in the Black Emperor's tank.
COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator

1. "Undoing a Luciferian Towers" (7:47) opens with a pulsing, vibrating weave that reminds me of a more sophisticated version of a SWANS song ("The Seer Returns"). With additional instruments (winds) joining in and adding to the mix, and a few key/chord shifts, the sound becomes cacophonous and almost overwhelming to me while maintaining that SWANS-like feel to the end. (8/10) 2. "Bosses Hanging (Pt. I, II, & III)" (14:42) strummed bass, tremoloed other stringed notes, precede the melody-presenting distorted electric guitar--until the 2:09 mark when drums and other instruments join (viola/violin) to present us with a kind of military funeral march. Kind of cool! At 3:13 more electrified stringed instruments (mostly guitars) join in in the higher registers, bringing a kind of plaintive urgency to the music. But this is only temporary, as at 4:22 everything drops away leaving a single guitar to play its two note arpeggio ad infinitum while a fast tremolo violin note accompanies. Gradually a plethora of other stringed instruments join in--all bringing with them their own two-note arpeggio to form quite an interesting TERRY RILEY-minimalist weave. When drums rejoin mid-seventh minute, the pace and complexity of the weave begins to build to a minor frenzy--kind of like the end violin solo in THE WHO's "Baba O'Riley." Halfway through the bass returns to strumming as the near-military drumming returns. Then the music stagnates and shifts, stagnates and shifts, several times over the next two minutes--including a couple of key/chord changes. At 11:25 the speed of these shifts quickens and a new upper register violin melody is added giving the song a little feeling of hopefulness. It's all here: death and destruction, chaos and confusion, as well as hope and optimism--this latter expressed beautifully (intentionally?) with the ending melody from (or a variation on) THE BEATLES' song "With a Little Help From My Friends." This song makes me appreciate GY!BE's genius. (9/10)
3. "FamFamine" (6:44) opens with some loosely conjoined one-and two-note droning from a variety of stringed instruments. Gradually the weave tightens and forms into a kind of FRIPP-ENO edgy-ambient thing. Interestingly, I would have liked this one had a JOHN LENNON/BEATLES sound and melody not appeared and moved to center in the fifth and sixth minutes (the same melody from the opening of the album's opening song). (8.5/10)
4. "Anthem for No State (Pt. I, II, & III)" (14:41) opens in a quiet simplistic way that I should like, but the use of the pedal steel (or "infinite guitar," saw, dobro, or whatever that whining, droning, incessantly sustaining sound is caused by) is not to my liking. Also the heavily fuzzed guitar doing most of the lead work is just to fuzzy for my tastes. The Country Western simplicity is maintained for six full minutes before bagpipes and distorted guitar strumming take over and turn the song into a SWANS-like emotional release. (Who came first, SWANS or GY!BE?) With four minutes left the song finally achieves full development. Nice drumming behind the weave of electrified stringed instruments. At 12:30 the song finally reveals a melody worth noting, worth remembering--which plays out with the song's finish. (8/10)
Latest members reviews
This is the album I'd been waiting for. A little backstory, shortly after the release of the last
album Asunder, Sweet I saw on Youtube that they had been playing an even newer long song that really
blew me away. Then I saw the band play it live in 205 and said to drummer Timothy Herzog after the
... (read more)
Report this review (#1824397) | Posted by thesameoldfears | Saturday, November 18, 2017 | Review Permanlink
After many listens, this is an amazing album. They project the word Hope in their live performances, and this is what this album sounds like. The 6 minutes or so drone pieces are huge walls of sounds, but less electronic than the ones on Asunder or Allelujah.
The violin takes a lot of place and
... (read more)
Report this review (#1789943) | Posted by villageglobal | Monday, October 2, 2017 | Review Permanlink
I know a lot of people will hate this album. Many will claim that there's no element to the godspeed sound and other will say that they're old, too happy and can't make a great album like lift your skinny fist anymore. LT is no way like lift your skinny fist or F#A# but it 's even so one of the best
... (read more)
Report this review (#1782408) | Posted by loulou24 | Friday, September 15, 2017 | Review Permanlink
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