AT STATE’S END: The Return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Given the state of the world today, that the newest album from Canadian post-rock legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor largely eschews pessimism in favour of buoyant, contagious hope is an unexpected turn, though not an unwelcome one. Godspeed’s music has always been obsessed with picturing and personifying humanity’s inevitable apocalypse (and perhaps more importantly, what might come after), yet beginning with Yanqui U.X.O. in 2002, the band’s prophecies have taken a noticeable turn for the cynical, even after returning from a decade-long hiatus. It’s likely that the ravenous campaign of inhumanity and imperialism that was the Bush years fractured the group’s optimism as was the case for so many other leftists, and while the misanthropic tone of 2012’s ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! and their other work throughout that decade is completely understandable, it feels immensely gratifying to hear a Godspeed that knows how to deify themselves once again. Like Allelujah, G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! is an impressive refinement of existing material into a coherent, formidable whole, and even if its most impassioned highs cannot reach the same cathartic fury as Mladic or We Drift Like Worried Fire, that Godspeed have finally reclaimed their talent for ecstatic deliverance is reason enough to celebrate.
Much like previous Godspeed albums released post-hiatus, AT STATE’S END has as its core a pair of prolonged, multi-movement epics, rough versions of which debuted at live performances in 2019 under the names 'Glacier’ and ‘Cliff’. The garbled found sound samples which introduce the former here are an entirely new addition, however, as are the ensuing blasts of atmospheric distortion that echo like a foghorn into the distance as a string section warbles tenuously underneath. A pair of guitars lines provide our first recognizable taste of melody at the outset of Job’s Lament, one carefully strumming notes in the foreground while the other snarls and churns deliciously in its wake, soon breaking into a rousing procession amplified by violin stings and taut percussion. But the enormity of this section’s inevitable climax is not content to merely fade away quietly, and as the track segues into First of the Last Glaciers, the tension is instantaneously reformed in a ferment of crashing drums and pummeling guitar chords. Even after the mayhem finally subsides to a more tempered pace that lingers for the remainder of the movement, Godspeed continue to draw out its emotional resonance as long as they feasibly can; the result is their first complete composition in nearly a decade that feels worthy of its lineage, though not the last to grace the grooves of this record.
The initial minutes of “GOVERMENT CAME” are a grim omen of resonant melodies: unhinged bass and percussion rumble underneath a foreboding guitar line, calling out over and over in anticipation of the chaos that is to come next. Godspeed’s infatuation with the musical personification of Armageddon is well established, but just as familiar are the delicate and heartening strings which subtly make their way into the song’s cracks, escalating its tension and filling out the band’s sound as they creep towards an inevitable conflagration. The tremulous and eerie sounds of a screwdriver strumming a guitar, an iconic Godspeed technique used to great effect on past records, cascade over the rest of the mix as the track climbs into higher and higher registers, culminating in an apex of vibrant euphoria that echoes with the vestiges of similarly haunting moments from the band’s earliest masterpieces. Derivative as it might seem, Godspeed have not been this effectively nostalgic in quite a while, and the results do little to inspire complaint.
That sonic reminiscence continues into the suite’s latter half as it slowly cedes to the anxious opening of Cliffs Gaze, a quivering intonation of strings and static that could have been lifted right from any number of movements on the group’s inaugural records. The coarse guitars which add another layer to the ambience here are a nice touch, though these first minutes are mostly used as a prelude to cliffs’ gaze at empty waters’ rise, in many respects the focal point of the entire album. You could likely even pinpoint the exact moment of transition by ear: the reverberant guitar line rings out suddenly and expectantly, each note drawn out and savoured until suddenly breaking into double time alongside an urgent chorus of violins. Yet while the impending culmination is relatively modest for Godspeed standards, its soaring melodies embody a powerful sense of optimism and conviction that has rarely (if ever) been felt in their music before. The emphatic conclusion of the piece once known only as ‘Cliff’ captures a feeling distinct from anything to come before, propelled throughout by exuberant percussion that accentuates perfectly every stage of the album’s glorious denouement.
In keeping with the structure of their other post-hiatus records, Godspeed contrast each longer opus with shorter, more melodically concise pieces that, while often disappointing in the past, here slot quite well into the operatic extravagance the group has constructed. Fire at Static Valley provides a welcome respite after the tumultuous First of the Last Glaciers, driven by the subtle hum of a guitar melody that cultivates a palpable sense of unease throughout. Abrasive strings and thrumming ambience resound, and a thudding bass drum pulses unceasingly underneath it all, a dirge that ominously progresses like a funeral march until the full force of its disquiet is staring the listener right in the face. Meanwhile, the album’s final offering draws closest to the drone interludes that were the focus of significant critical ire on records such as Allelujah and Luciferian Towers; still, OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (for D.H.) functions admirably as a musical détente in the wake of everything that came before. Its title is certainly the most damning proof that Godspeed have embraced their own form of optimism on AT STATE’S END, and though its composition favours atmosphere as opposed to any sort of motif or refrain, the wavering choir of elongated string notes serves well as a delicate coda for such a thematically abnormal entry in the band’s discography.
Preserving a fondness for the cryptic that has persisted across over two decades of their existence, Godspeed’s latest album premiered in a livestream a week before its official release, accompanied visually by a spotty and abstract projection of images: urban landscapes belching out fire and smoke, distorted Rorschach-like blots of black and white, juxtapositions of civil unrest and government crackdowns. Though much of the found footage was no doubt meant to convey tone and atmosphere rather than a coherent message, as the curious affair began and the enrapt virtual audience was engulfed by the erratic opening blares of Military Alphabet, one word flashed over and over on the screen, unsteady yet distinct: HOPE. Godspeed You! Black Emperor are uncannily effective at using their art form to aurally epitomize the human condition, a talent that has reappeared in some form on every project since their inception yet has not sounded this impactful on a record in years. G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! is not a reinvention, either for Godspeed or for the genre of post-rock as a whole, but their confidence in our ability to rescue the world from our own sins is enough reason to separate this album from its legacy and commend it for its own creativity and vision.
8.5/10