I think that sadness is the most powerful emotion one can feel. When tears swell behind regretful eyes and blissful dreams turn into depressing memories upon regrettably awakening from their bindings, a distinct feeling surges through the body and tranquilizes it with despair. Dormant, the desire to live slowly leaves you, replaced by the desire to repay the debt weighing shame down to the pit of your stomach. As an attempt to expose the disgraceful remorse between the lines of the story of society, what is Godspeed You! Black Emperor if not a success? Through musical pastures of turbulence and calm, “Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada” keeps their signature consistency intact, and their gloomy perception of the human union, or lack thereof. A cinematic brilliance is present throughout this epic; aside from the politically-fueled sampling, “Slow Riot” explains the importance of crescendo/decrescendo and abstractly, climax, and it ascends to that in the slow burning fashion of a classic drama. Godspeed is a warning, an idea that should strike you like a bolt of lightning or a stiff jab – in the realm of those particular tastes of reality, the summit of their career is atop a mountain of truths, built on the grounds that us mere men cannot see it unless it towers over our petty conflicts and interests. The metaphoric value of this record is deftly supported by a monumental composition, one of the building blocks of this illustrious musical pursuit that I hope will one day recover.
Blaise Bailey Finnegan III features a spoken word interview that states the claim, “Most people are in agreement with what I’m saying.” The interviewee sees deceit in governmental routine in a country where the condition of living isn’t quite what people think it is. The paradoxical impulsive and logical nature of humans distracts this man the way it does most everyone else: when required to play along redundantly, a fever of rebellion takes over his body, jeopardizing his safety since in the eyes of the judge whose courtroom he so rabidly enlightens, he is barbaric, and enough people will think similarly to put him away where no harm can be done. The despair of this song expresses disappointment in a songwriter whose views are no different, sitting aside as another one bites the dust. When
Blaise Bailey Finnegan III gains intensity and subsequent tranquility, harmony is represented, and this is a most important harmony, that of both anger and compassion, two emotions extensively present on this record and also in every living thing on this Earth, especially those that misuse them (us).
The final moments of
Moya will also show you the significant harmony I refer to. Those violins are so compelling for the wake they leave behind is just as. That instrument plays a leading role in this performance, as strings usually do in Godspeed’s music, but “Slow Riot” is especially mysterious because of those stringed mediums of melancholy. What seems to be shrouded in enigma is simply represented by a most beautiful shade of grey. Each note played is drenched in passionate emphasis, and rarely is a melody so potent that it cannot be preferred to another in the same song, because they are all exactly as they should be to convey something so foreboding. This music swims through the thoughts of one looking in from the outside of catastrophe, like a disgruntled citizen watching the world decline on television. The mournful sound of loneliness and emotional decay expresses the shame this unhappily passive commoner feels – a character who tends to resurface throughout Godspeed’s discography, but who is most personally and masterfully exemplified on “Slow Riot”. The brooding start of
Moya is calamity by way of instrument; I detect haste within its grief, escalating to the commencement of the event that will (or should; sadly I digress from fantasy) change it all forever. “Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada” scores the tainted days leading up to apocalypse, but it never reaches it; a prequel to “F#A#Infinity”.
