'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

An album of music that is both new and old from a band that we thought we might never hear from again, one we should appreciate while we can.

It only takes a few seconds of Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! to realise that GY!BE are back to do what they do best; making a glorious cacophony of ringing guitars, singing strings and ferocious feedback. 

It’s tense, it’s beautiful, it’s bleak, it takes the listener from point A to point B while leaving it up to us what the point of the ride is to begin with.

Allelujah! seems more immediate and more organic, but instead of feeling blown away by it’s unreachable drama and grandeur, with a decade of age behind us and the band, it feels inhabitable in a way Godspeed never has before.

Where previous releases have seen the Canadian outfit reach toward a clarity of emotion and execution, ’Allelujah! sounds muddy and muffled in its messaging.

For now, though, they’ve made a modestly magnificent record that entirely validates this reformation.

‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! rewards immersive, though somewhat uncritical, listening: a glorious hymn to the visceral and transformative power of sound.

Marrying an experimental-rock ethos with a symphony's scope, Godspeed once again offers a record that easily matches the intrigue of their album titles and covers. 

The new recordings are thrilling and arguably more direct than on GY!BE’s classic albums, but I suspect it’s not the new music on the album that makes this album an event; it’s the band’s re-emergence as a cultural text at this moment.

Allelujah! Dont’ Bend! Ascend! offers fewer catharses, fewer emotions, and fewer answers, putting more distance than ever between Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the listener.

This album only consists four songs. Two songs lasts 20 minutes, each. It feels like Ratko Mladic and his army drift you like worried fire with their helicopter sings and strungs like a light at thee printemps erable. Godspeed!

Ladies and gentlemen, Godspeed have returned.