ASUNDER, SWEET AND OTHER DISTRESS

The latest album by reigning post-rock masters Godspeed You! Black Emperor consists solely of the song "Behemoth", which has been performed live going back to 2012. At a hair over forty minutes, it's their shortest full-length album since the vinyl edition of their début album, F♯ A♯ ∞, and the band has spent quite a bit of time honing the song since its introduction in live shows. It's leaner (the running time has dropped by around four minutes) and denser than it was when they introduced it, and the drone sections, which make up most of the midsection of the song, have been refined substantially in the intervening time.

Since, apart from the two brief drone pieces on 2012's 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, this is the first material the group has written since its reformation, there are a few subtle differences here from the band's earlier music. The band has continued its preoccupation with drone music exhibited on the aforementioned 2012 album, so if you were annoyed that the band seemed to have increased the portion of drone music on its last release, the midsection of this piece won't leave you feeling any more satisfied. However, the epic, progressive scope of the band's music is unchanged, and if anything, has increased with this release. This is the longest song the band has ever recorded by a substantial margin, and it delivers the emotional payoff a listener would hope for. "Peasantry or 'Light! Inside of Light!'" is a suitably weighty intro, which leads seamlessly into the free-floating "Lambs' Breath" and the steadily building "Asunder, Sweet" before the album's emotional centrepiece, "Piss Crowns Are Trebled". The last of these stands among the weightiest tracks Godspeed have ever recorded, and would justify the purchase of this recording even if it were the only compelling track on it. Thankfully, the recording's heft is such that a listener, upon finishing it, may well feel that the only appropriate course of action is to start it again. This album continues Godspeed's considerable winning streak, and as listeners we can only hope that they continue to produce such worthy material.