- Record Label: Constellation
- Release Date: Oct 16, 2012
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Nov 15, 2012Given the discipline and experimentation in the short pieces, and in the creative imagination displayed in rearranging the longer ones to accommodate a larger band, 'Allelujah! Don't Bend Ascend proves, that GY!BE still has plenty of captivating things to say.
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Nov 15, 2012Godspeed have once again created a challenging, intense, evocative work, worthy of their canon.
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Nov 15, 2012Allelujah! seems more immediate and more organic, but instead of feeling blown away by it's unreachable drama and grandeur, with a decade of age behind us and the band, it feels inhabitable in a way Godspeed never has before.
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Jan 2, 2013This isn't the sound of a once-renowned band trying to cash in on their glory days; it's the sound of a band invigorated.
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Nov 15, 2012Allelujah!'s defiance of strictures of classic post-rock cinematic crescendos, or extended kraut-rock grooves, or popular musical modes and tonalities are what makes it work more as political album than it does as a traditional emotional one.
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Nov 15, 2012They use a quiet/loud formula to epic create drone-filled symphonies, which rumble, crackle and erupt perfectly.
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Nov 15, 2012They've made a modestly magnificent record that entirely validates this reformation.
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Nov 15, 2012It may take a while before 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! is accepted amongst the ranks of their earlier work, if that ever happens, but ultimately, this is the same epic, mystifying GY!BE as always.
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Nov 15, 2012'Allelujah!'s symmetrical sequencing-two 20-minute suites, two 6-minute drones-is as stark and stout as anything the band have released to date, unflinching as it stares extreme horror dead in the eye.
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MojoDec 17, 2012Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! feels simultaneously enormous and tragic; the sound of victory, firmly set in the jaws of defeat. [Jan 2013, p.91]
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Nov 15, 2012'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! rewards immersive, though somewhat uncritical, listening: a glorious hymn to the visceral and transformative power of sound.
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Nov 15, 2012It's all powerful stuff and it can only be GY!BE.
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Nov 15, 2012They still show no interest in doing things the easy way, and we couldn't be happier about that.
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Nov 15, 2012The time-tested tracks not only showcase the band doing what they do best in notoriously long, dramatic, panic-inducing instrumentals but are also startling reminders on why the band was so vital and lead such a movement to begin with.
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Nov 15, 2012Few can match their feel for arrangement or sense of structure.
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Nov 15, 2012This potent emotional strain that runs throughout 'Allelujah is a confident affirmation of Godspeed's return to prominence. Ten years have very much been worth the wait.
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Nov 15, 2012'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! sells itself.
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Nov 15, 2012The album lives up to its name in every way on this powerful, bruising, yet generous record.
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Nov 20, 2012Godspeed's music remains as deep, angry, tender, ecstatic and uncompromising as ever.
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Nov 15, 2012After 18 years, the revered nonconformists have compiled an album that feels like a career-spanning retrospective.
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Nov 15, 2012Godspeed is all about wide-open spaces here. And it's easier to find transcendence in the desolation, to get hypnotized by a single note, or get lost in rearranging the four vinyl sides into your own personal manifesto.
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Nov 15, 2012'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! is a truly unforgettable experience.
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Nov 15, 2012The disc is padded with two shorter pieces that serve as ambient interludes only.... That doesn't detract from the alternating bombast and delicacy of 'Allelujah!, but it does make the album feel more like a prelude to a comeback than a full-on renaissance.
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Nov 15, 2012The Godspeed ethos of wordlessly eliciting universal truths is remains as devastatingly effective as ever.
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Nov 15, 2012Allelujah! picks up where Montreal's premier apocalyptic instrumental outfit left off, setting the collapse of the first world to wordless music.
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Nov 15, 2012The long tracks here are hard to experience or hold in memory as entireties-- too big, too detailed, too multiple.... Which makes what comes afterwards more genuine: the two shorter tracks (relegated to a dropped-in 7" on the vinyl version) each explore a moment that would have formed part of the succession of the longer pieces, probing atmospheres of breakdown, exhaustion and drift as if opening up the microcosmic heart of their work.
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Nov 15, 2012Compared to the discourse and debate surrounding the new album, the music itself is somewhat of a non-event: two epic 20-minute-long LP sides, and a 7-inch of drone tracks.
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UncutDec 11, 2012Post-Bush, post-9/11, post-financial crisis, they sound more like [a] documentary. [Jan 2013, p.77]
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Dec 12, 2012Marrying an experimental-rock ethos with a symphony's scope, Godspeed once again offers a record that easily matches the intrigue of their album titles and covers.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 64 out of 68
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Mixed: 2 out of 68
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Negative: 2 out of 68
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Apr 25, 2013
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Dec 17, 2012
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Dec 9, 2012At a time where post-rock is more a joke than a reputable genre, Godspeed You! Black Emperor return from Valhalla to show the world how it