The prophets have returned from their mountain. Before, Godspeed You! Black Emperor had been tuned to the heavens. Their past gospels were inspired conversations with burning bushes that swallowed detractors in waves of groaned noise. Their crescendos spoke of a heavenly rage and their drones wove psalms of feedback and discontent.
But now, as the Montreal nonet returns once more, they’ve tempered themselves. Their past work reveled in fury and purpose, spinning through movements both contemplative and destructive. But, whatever spoke to them from the mountaintops before has seen fit to leave Godspeed You! Black Emperor to find its own way through its mire. So as they return, they do so without a grand guiding vision; without the usual fire to light their way.
Their newest album ‘Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress’ is the sound of Godspeed You! Black Emperor in that lull. They’re repeating their sermons from before, dwelling in echoed exaltation from their trademark symphonic guitar thunder and meditating in the same white noise that sprawled through Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven’s classical ruminations. “Piss Crowns Are Trebled” has their noise-fueled destruction strewn across melodic strings, while the middle chunk of the album bleeds with that familiar, raw hum.
Yet 'Asunder’s bellowing familiarity isn’t unwelcome. Quite frankly, this is the only band that’s translated righteous fury into this ambience of symphony and noise so devoutly. While they may be playing off their past works, Godspeed’s still managed to harness strands of their voice, blending colossal tracks like “Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside of Light!’” that warp amplifiers as only Godspeed You! could.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s nine sages returned to their instruments and wrote their next pages. The visions that led them through classics like "f#a# (infinity)" and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven were absent, so they just did what had felt right. Sprawled across forty minutes of feedback is 'Asunder, an album that rumbles and sputters into brilliant instrumentals and darkened loops. It’s as “by-the-book” a band could get; good thing that Godspeed You!’s bible is far from weak source material.
Grade: C+
