F# A# ∞

Godspeed you black emperor is a hard band to get into. It took me several months, and finally, I feel confident enough to write a review on the magnificent album. First I should say that the album, is the bleakest, and most ambient of their three and a half albums, but it's my favorite. In lift your skinny fists, they get a little too straight forward, and in Yangui there just seems to be a lack of the pure desolation that they try to find that's already on this album. F# A infinity is absolutely pivotal in your post rock growth, and not owning the album is practically a crime if you're into the genre.

As you may may already know, this band mostly composes lengthy pieces between fifteen and twenty five minutes long, very occasionally going above or below that limit. This album is no exception, with only three songs, and clocking in at sixty three minutes long, Godspeed you! black emperor is giving Yes a run for their money. The song Dead flag blues is an extremely bleak track, framed around a short monologue at the beginning of the song talking about the destruction of America, corrupt governments, suicides, the works. And the rest of the song just flows through this atmosphere of depression, leaving you extremely... depressed. The next song East Hastings was featured on the movie 28 days later, and though I cant really say it fit in too well, the song is probably my favorite in the Godspeed catalogue. With the swelling of the epic climax, to the dark ambiance afterwords, a song you cant miss. The third song Providence, is built in typical Godspeed fashion, but with a longer time (twenty nine minutes) more time is given to climax, to create the dark/depressing atmosphere, and to portray some truly eerie vibes.

Another reason why this is my favorite album by the group is because the strings are basically as prominent as the guitars. While in the other albums, they're a bit more uneven (especially Lift your skinny fists). Extremely sad strings glide over the softer parts, while completely untampered with guitars make beautiful harmonies to contrast, and as the build up begins, the arpeggios become more faster and aggressive, while the strings start to crescendo and start moving in a chord progression rather than just droning. The climax will come while the EITS like drummer pounds away at the snare, and everything starts coming together, in a hurricane of noise, that becomes so intense at points that really all you can call it is noise. This only lasts for minute or two, or even less, before the crash is hit, the guitars suddenly stop, the strings come to a desperate crawl, and ambiance sets in to drift to the end of the song. This trend is basically on followed in the latter two songs. The first song, Dead flag blues, is a song that is in a constant motion, or ebb and flow, as guitars drop to strings, strings drop to ambiance, ambiance rises to guitars, and guitars drop to strings. This song is basically what sets the tone for the album...

...Melancholia, the factor that gives ninety percent of what post rock is made of. Bleak, unforgiving melancholia, a force to be reckoned with, a mood that hasn't been written in the stones of progressive music until this album was made. Sure Universe Zero may have contributed, hell even influenced it, but I do believe this band, and in particular, this album, brought the depressing side of music to post rock, and maybe even prog rock, and for that I am very grateful. Therefore, I give this album, with no hesitation Five stars.