If you like your electric guitar-oriented instrumental rock with a side helping of dense orchestral arrangements and sizzling crescendos and ominous field recordings, garnished with unapologetically pretentious song titles and album packaging, and accompanied by an unshakeable aura of nihilism, well, you’re probably a fan of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They are one of the most formidable and influential “post-rock” bands to come about since the 1990s, and, like all the greats of that genre, they constantly and effortlessly transcend its boundaries.
Also, smack in the middle of the George W. Bush era, they were detained by police after being mistaken for a gang of terrorists at a gas station in Oklahoma, which we’re sure was a shitty experience, but it also wouldn’t surprise us if they all ended up putting that on their business cards in extra-large font, since sonically assaulting post-9/11 American foreign policy is a pretty big cornerstone of their music.
They have seven studio albums and an EP for us to consider, and the consideration begins now:
7. Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (2015)
Nothing wrong with a long, droney interlude on your album, but this one gets pushed just a little too far. The middle section could be mistaken for a slightly-less-dense version of a Sunn O))) record. Closing track “Piss Clowns are Trebled” (did we mention these guys have a gift for song/album titles?) is killer, but it feels like it takes all day to get there, and this is on one of their shortest albums.
Play It Again: “Piss Clowns are Trebled”
Skip It: “Lamb’s Breath” unless you really REALLY like ominous drones
6. Luciferian Towers (2017)
Darker and more ominous than most GY!BE records (and that’s saying something), the dirge-like tracks on here are apparently meant to support the entirely reasonable list of political demands included in the album’s packaging, notably “an end to foreign invasion, an end to borders, the total dismantling of the prison–industrial complex.” It’s an admirable attempt, but the people with the power to bring those things to an end are more likely listening to bro country than to intricately-composed instrumental avant-garde post-rock by a bunch of anarchist weirdos.
Play It Again: “Anthem for No State” (parts I-III)
Skip It: “Fam/Famine” – It’s by no means terrible, but it’s got enough dissonance to give you a low-grade panic attack.
Honorable Mention: Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada (1999)
This EP has two tracks, one of which is perfect entry-level GY!BE, a nice little 10-minute piece that is pretty much the distilled essence of the band’s style. The other is primarily a field recording of some malcontent (who probably stormed the capitol 22 years later) bragging about how he mouthed off to a judge while paying a parking ticket and then reciting an “original” poem that is mostly plagiarized Iron Maiden lyrics. You can listen to it as a nifty piece of performance art, but remember, you really don’t have to.
Play it Again: “Moya”
Skip It: “Blaise Bailey Finnegan III”
5. G__d’s Pee at State’s End (2021)
The band was already selling merch with this album title almost a decade before its release, so it must have been a slow-developing concept. We’re also not sure why a band this transgressive and decidedly non-mainstream felt the need to censor the title, but that’s surely all part of some grand aesthetic plan. A solid album front-to-back, with less emphasis on drone, a return to field recordings as a central (but not overused) element, and some riffs that, played a little faster through the right guitar pedal, would practically be death metal.
Play it Again: “Job’s Lament”
Skip It: “Where We Break, How We Shine (ROCKETS FOR MARY)”
4. Yanqui U.X.O. (2002)
This one sort of had to be in the middle of the pack, and there’s a simple litmus test for whether you’ll be into it: Do you like GY!BE’s whole deal? Then you’ll like this, but it probably won’t be your favorite. Do you not like GY!BE’s whole deal? Then you won’t like this, and probably won’t feel inclined to compare it to the rest of their discography. This is just the band doing what they do, but very little really stands out. We’re giving it a break though, because it was the follow-up to “Lift Your Skinny Fists” (see below), which is a stone cold banger.
Play it Again: “Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls”
Skip It: “9-15-00 part 2” (Like, why did this need to be a separate track? Part 1 got the job done anyhow)
3. F#A#∞ (1996)
We’re at that magical point in the ranking where you could shuffle them up in any order and it would be perfectly respectable. This record was such an anomaly in the 1996 music world: In the context of an era of easy-listening pop treacle and post-grunge crapola, this sounds like it might as well be a transmission from Mars. The music is painstakingly weird, and that iconic opening spoken-word piece—”The car is on fire, and no driver at the wheel, and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides.”—not only sets the tone for GY!BE’s entire discography, but also sounds like something from a particularly bleak Cormac McCarthy novel, and ain’t nothing wrong with that.
Play it Again: “Dead Flag Blues”
Skip It: There are only two other tracks, and they’re both good, but if you absolutely must, you could skip “East Hastings,” though you’d miss some instrumental bits that sound like what we imagine watching Bergman’s Persona on acid would be like.
2. Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000)
It’s a masterpiece, and most people’s gateway not only to this band, but to experimental turn-of-the-millenium instrumental music in general. It’s a straight line from this to Explosions in the Sky and This Will Destroy You, but it’s also more ambitious and audacious than anything either of those bands, excellent as they are, have ever done. Unlike on “Slow Riot,” the spoken word and field recording bits mesh so well with the music that you can’t imagine them not being there, especially the moody street preacher on “Static.” But even some guy waxing nostalgic about Coney Island or a looped recording of a grocery store PA announcement add depth and nuance to the album. And musically, “Static” is a master-class in the slow-burn payoff. It’s not just that it spends 15 minutes (!!!) building upon a simple muted guitar riff with more and more layers and intensity—that sort of compositional trick is a dime a dozen in this genre—it’s that the tempo picks up right alongside it, and by the time the crescendo hits, the song is cruising at practically 200 BPM and you feel like you just got pummeled by the experimental music equivalent of a crowbar-wielding mob enforcer. But, like, in a good way.
Play It Again: “Static”
Skip It: “Like Antennas to Heaven,” the last track, feels a little extraneous, but also, how are you gonna skip a whole nearly-20-minute track? That’s ¼ of the album! But if you have to, you can.
1. Alleluia! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (2012)
The band’s first album after a 10-year hiatus, and unequivocally their greatest. “Lift Your Skinny Fists” is incredible, but this record is an absolute triumph. The two longer tracks steal the show, with opener “Mladic” culminating in a weird, loopy drone that will make you think the record is skipping for a few seconds before the payoff comes in a beautifully-composed crescendo. “We Drift Like Worried Fire” is built around a simple but gorgeous riff and is, at least by GY!BE standards, practically a ballad in its gentle simplicity. The shorter tracks are less memorable, and it’s almost like the band wants you to see them that way (the vinyl version has them on a separate 7-inch while the longer tracks are on each side of the LP), but you should take the time to alternate the discs accordingly, because experiencing this album as a complete work is deeply rewarding. Five stars, two thumbs up, 10/10, perfect album.
Play It Again: All of it
Skip It: “Their Helicopters Sing” and “Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable,” but ONLY IF for some reason the 45 RPM setting on your turntable is broken. Otherwise, don’t skip nothing.