Review Summary: An album reeking of laziness with the nuance of a baseball bat to the head.
As far as consistency goes, there is no more consistent band than Godspeed You! Black Emperor. In fact, even their so-called weakest album “Yanqui U.X.O.” isn’t really that bad in the grand scheme of things. After the collective broke up following Yanqui’s release, I would venture so far as to say that most people would’ve expected Godspeed to disappear from the public consciousness, especially with the excellent material Thee Mt. Zion Orchestra was putting out while Godspeed was in a hiatus. I certainly did not expect anything new from Godspeed, and that’s why when “‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!” was released, I was rather blown away with how fresh the band sounded. It’s as if the ten years in between Yanqui and ‘Allelujah were something that we, as Godspeed fans, had only imagined. Mladic was a thundering return to relevance for the group, and the album’s uneasy Arabic vibe let the album carve out its own niche in their repertoire.
“Behemoth”, as fans lovingly (or not so lovingly) referred to became a live staple. Paired up with “Hope Drone,” these two tracks became a staple of Godspeed live performances post-‘Allelujah. After Death Grips backed out of Nine Inch Nails’ Tension tour, Godspeed was chosen as the opener for many performances, and the performance of these two tracks sat uncomfortably in front of Trent Reznor’s industrial death pop due to the fact that Behemoth is simply an unwieldy beast. While the track went over better in concerts that Godspeed was the headliner of, the beast of a track, varying anywhere from 20-45 minutes in length showed a new edge to the group. Opening up with an incredibly overly dramatic introduction, lulling in the middle with incessant drones before a massive final climax, Behemoth was everything Godspeed was, is, and wanted to be. But here in lines the problem; Behemoth is simply unwieldy, messy, and overcooked. Once “’Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress’” was announced as Behemoth on record, I immediately knew that this album would either be flat out horrible, or a masterpiece.
Unfortunately, ‘Asunder is the former. It is nothing more than an overblown parody of everything Godspeed is good at. With Behemoth, the group tried to shoehorn every musical direction the band had ever taken and fashion into an overwhelmingly bleak Book of Eli-type soundscape to poor results. “Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside of Light!” is, upon first listen, an absolutely brilliant track. Immediately, the track pummels you with a fistful of wall of sound brute force and the swaying melodies that made “F#A#” such a classic piece of dystopian post-rock. Yet, for 10 minutes, the song picks up that melody, and repeatedly pummels you over the head with it for the length of the track without that gradual build that made “The Dead Flag Blues” one of the best pieces of music ever written. It feels epic, sure. It feels, grandiose, sure. But it also drones on, and on, and on…and, well, you get the picture.
I know, Godspeed requires patience and their repetitive nature in their long songs is almost a trademark; but the problem here is that, in fact,
no, Godspeed is
not normally a repetitive band. The shifting movements built like a classical symphony played with rock instruments is what makes Godspeed so freaking unique. Even the album’s final moment, “Piss Crowns are Trebled” flirts with greatness but ultimately misses the mark. This song, instead of the repetition of Peasantry, focuses on a military drum pattern and the very same slowly rising rhythm that Godspeed has utilized on every one of their albums before erupting into a symphony of noise, then promptly dropping back to quiet, just to go right for the jugular with a cacophony of grandiosity. Piss Crowns tries to so hard to give you one of those moments that sends shivers up your spine, but completely misses the nuance that gave you those shivers in past releases. It doesn’t ever surprise you, as it builds to an apex of noise built off of typical Godspeed tropes, drops, and then proceeds to do the exact same freaking thing. What a disappointment.
What’s an even bigger disappointment though, is the filler hiding in the middle of the album. Behemoth’s biggest flaw was--despite the predictability and unwieldly nature of a 40-minute song--the loaded filler drone in the middle. Godspeed has, for years now, been slowly adding more and more drone inspired tracks to their works, and it hit a peak with the atmosphere they added in ‘Allelujah. “Lambs’ Breath” is really the worst offender here, as it sends you into a dark, post-apocalyptic atmosphere, before nearly going silent for five minutes into a Olof Dreijer style drone that is literally nothing but a 40hz hum. The drone gives you the vibe of the world ending, absolutely. But that’s because literally there’s nothing else here. This isn’t much different than when people try to talk about Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music” as some piece of music art (coming from an unabashed shoegaze fanboy.) “Asunder, Sweet” is an excellent track at creating the atmosphere for a dead world, with a soundscape so reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails’ “Corona Radiata” that Trent Reznor could probably sue for IP infringement. It slowly builds into a nice, soothing cacophony of sound (minus the random sequencer squabbles that sound quite a bit like a fart) but ultimately leaves you with a wasted fifteen minute interval in the middle of the album. I enjoy dark ambient music, but this is really four minutes of music total.
Without going too much in depth to the lazy naming scheme that Efrim Menuck has fallen into as of late (okay, we get it, lots of ! and ‘ and the word piss), this album reeks of laziness. It’s nothing more than a caricature of one of the greatest musical groups of all time. This album’s sudden release being based off a song that received mixed reviews containing fifteen minutes of dead time just, quite simply, seems lazy and half-assed. Combine that with such a lack of subtlety in the two real tracks on the album and you have the recipe for the most overcooked and overwrought Godspeed album ever made. I love post-apocalyptic Godspeed and dystopia more than anyone, but when the Divergent book series has more nuance in its dystopian themes, there’s a major problem. Better luck next time, Godspeed.
