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Godspeed You! Black Emperor -

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

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

 

Post Rock/Math rock

3.85 | 15 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator
PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic
4 stars While protest music and political criticism is hardly anything even remotely new in the world of popular music, so far the vast escapist's paradise known as post-rock has for the most part eschewed such topics as political unrest, gross injustices of the world and the real biggie of all, namely genocide. However to ignore the realities of the world around you is to give implicit consent so it's refreshing that a band like GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, arguably the top royalty in the entire world of post-rock has taken a stance regarding the hostilities that seem never-ending between the occupied lands of Palestine by the state of Israeli Zionist forces. For whatever reason music has avoided such controversial and polarizing topics but the tide has turned in the favor of the underdogs so it's refreshing to find a well established band taking a stance.

On the band's latest and ninth official release (counting the now confirmed authenticity of the band's delayed 1994 mystery album "All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling,") the GODSPEEDSTERS have crafted another collection of apocalyptic soundscapes laid bare through the sounds of chamber rock instrumentation and melancholic drones. While fairly abstract as far as how the musical style is delivered, NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD is actually a concept release that highlights the number of casualties who have fallen victim to the war crimes on the Gaza territory courtesy of a power drunk regime hellbent on regional domination thus bringing the band's traditional abstruse and nebulously defined concepts into a focused limelight of current events.

Amazingly the GODSPEEDSTERS have returned with the exact same lineup that the band has benefited from since 2012 which gives this team of 10 musicians on board an almost telepathic connection as this well-oiled machine has reached the peak of the post-rock totem pole. While conceptually directed towards a specifically targeted series of war crimes still in play, musically NO TITLE pretty much carries on the business-as-usual approach the GODSPEEDSTERS have been crafting since the so-called return to form initiated on 2021's " G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END!" after boldly drifting into more explorative terrain on the band's two previous albums. This is a comforting move for hardcore fans who worship the alter of the band's run from "F#A#∞" to "'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" but sounds a little been-there-done-that to anyone hoping the the SPEEDSTERS would take their act to the next level.

Musically NO TITLE offers more of the same with long drawn out cyclical looping soundscapes that find jarring guitar distortion punctuating a creeping to crescendo chamber rock callithump of instrumentation. A totally instrumental affair save the scant spoken vocal parts offered by Michele Fiedler Fuentes on "Raindrops Cast In Lead," the SPEEDSTERS offer another compelling album of their unique brand of post-rock only set to autopilot without much effort to direct the music to evoke the specific nature of the so-called conceptual nature of the album's intent. Even the spoken lyrics are presented in the Spanish language and not the expected Arabic narrative of some Palestinian victim of the assault suggesting the GODSPEEDSTERS were willing to cast a light on the situation with the title but didn't want to go the entire distance and offer some of their famous field recordings of actual events that have transpired pointing to the fact the band wants to have its cake and eat it to.

While conceptually significant as it does indeed express the sentiment of most of the world at this point, musically there isn't much to separate NO TITLE from the previous offerings of multisyllabic titled releases except for the fact that perhaps NO TITLE is a bit more on the mellow side compared to the thundering crescendo induced majesty of previous albums. The album just seems more down to Earth and less embarked on an alienation journey however this is fairly superficial as the same epic techniques and enigmatic tactics that band has engaged in for over two decades are well in play. Overall there is nothing to dislike about NO TITLE as it displays the band doing what it does best with an impeccable display of atmospheric uproar funneled through the limitations of a chamber rock orchestral effect and it's safe to say that GODSPEED is in no danger of losing its touch as far as postly rockin' the world with its now classic funeral escapade into the darkened realms of experimental rock.

For those who welcome just another brick in the band's homogenous wall of sound then NO TITLE will no doubt bring you to those same places in a slightly different form however the band is beginning to sound a bit retro with its own style as it seems to have ceased and desisted to any attempts to evolve the band into a new chapter of the post-rock universe. Commercial acceptance over brash experimentalism? Well, that's clearly a decision any world class famous band has to make and although i would love to hear the SPEEDSTERS ratchet things up a few notches i'm in no position to declare that i don't enjoy a consistent rehash of one of the world's most exhilarating post-rock bands. In short another well performed album that falls short in evolutionary expectations and a rather feeble attempt regarding the conceptual aspects. In all fairness, GODSPEED has crafted a rather timeless sound that will probably carry it into the next decade and beyond so i can only be grateful that a band is capable of releasing quality music time and time again.

siLLy puPPy | 4/5 |

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