Godspeed You! Black Emperor has been crafting long, challenging and often thought-provoking post-rock music since the late 1990s. The Montreal band has become known for its drawn out crescendos and cacophonous orchestrations, usually resulting in strong emotional responses from those patient enough to listen.
Due to the band’s experimental nature, Godspeed has become a cult favorite. A number of the band’s albums, such as 2000’s “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven,” are now considered classics.
Given that Godspeed’s music is mainly instrumental –– only a few spoken word bits are thrown in here and there –– it can be surprising to find out that the group is often considered to be political. This characteristic is only evident upon noting various liner notes, as well as the group’s consistent refusal to play along with what its members perceive as a capitalistic music industry.
The band gave a statement that made certain beliefs more explicit in response to winning a Polaris Music Prize in 2013 for their album “Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!” Among other things, Godspeed criticized the absurdity of “holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline.”
Out of this same insurgent energy comes Godspeed’s latest full-length project, “Luciferian Towers.” Prior to this LP’s release, the band issued a note explaining that the album is informed by a list of “grand demands,” which concluded with an insistence that “the expert fuckers who broke this world never get to speak again.”
And “Luciferian Towers” is certainly fitting of a broken world. The album’s dirge-like opening track, “Undoing A Luciferian Towers,” begins with a dissonant string section that holds off on any kind of tonal shift until about two minutes in. At nearly eight minutes long, the composition functions well as an apocalyptic storm, leveling the landscape for the rest of the album still to come.
“Bosses Hang” immediately follows this. At nearly fifteen minutes, it stands out as one of the two longer movements featured on the album. This track is the closest Godspeed has ever come to creating stadium rock. It opens with a calming electric guitar riff that soon finds itself backed by a crowd of uplifting instrumentation.
Despite the dismal world Godspeed often places itself in, this track feels hopeful. By the composition’s latter half, it feels like a call to action. An increased tempo and energetic string section carry it into a satisfying conclusion.

“Fam/Famine” works well as an interlude. With bouncing strings and a lack of any discernable melody towards the beginning, it is both lively and clouded. The song then shifts into a familiar musical phrase that was first introduced toward the beginning of the album on “Undoing a Luciferian Towers.” This moment is brilliantly executed and helps tie the two halves of the record together.
The album concludes with the massive “Anthem for No State.” Its beginning is pastoral, but the song eventually builds into an intensity that would not feel out of place on a late-era Swans record. Moments of this track are definitely dizzying, but as a whole it encompasses a synergetic mix of vigor, reflection, and perhaps a sense of responsibility.
On “Luciferian Towers,” the world has gone to shit, but Godspeed has left room for renewal. If previous Godspeed releases could be compared to dense, philosophical tomes, “Luciferian Towers” is a DIY political pamphlet –– easily digestible, yet greatly impactful.
It is worth finding the moments of beauty buried in the discord. With this latest project, Godspeed has created nothing short of an inspiration.