'ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor are one of those bands that I have trouble talking about because they have had such an impact on my life.  The first time I saw them was on their reunion tour after being on hiatus for over 8 years at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York City.  It is probably the only show I can say literally changed my life.  

On Monday I saw them again at the Orpheum and it was a completely different experience to say the least.  I won't go into details here - but the set they played Monday night was much darker.  But the most surprising thing was they were selling a new album of theirs.  This information took a while to register for me when I saw this walking in, since there was no news about this coming out prior to seeing it for sale there and it is the first album they have released in ten years.  I can honestly say that their new album, "'ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND!" not only actually exists, but it's amazing and among their strongest work to date.  It consists of 2 longer pieces (both over 20 minutes), and 2 drone pieces.  It is easily my favorite album of the year so far and I definitely recommend checking it out when it drops for the rest of the world on October 16th.  Here's more information about it from Constellation Records.

Here's the piece "We Drift Like Worried Fires" from the new album: