'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 68 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 64 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 68
  3. Negative: 2 out of 68
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  1. Vampire25
    Dec 17, 2012
    9
    An almost perfect album. Godspeed You! Black Emperor return with guns blazing on this record. 53 minute album containing only 4 tracks. The opener "Mladic" is quite the opener. It's nearly 20 minutes long and completely KICKS ASS. They have a knack for small details and texture to their songs. It almost seems like the song sounds different each time I listen to it because I always catchAn almost perfect album. Godspeed You! Black Emperor return with guns blazing on this record. 53 minute album containing only 4 tracks. The opener "Mladic" is quite the opener. It's nearly 20 minutes long and completely KICKS ASS. They have a knack for small details and texture to their songs. It almost seems like the song sounds different each time I listen to it because I always catch new things about it. It's a difficult album at first though. Really difficult. It's one of those albums that'll click with you one day. All In All, if you have the patience, give this beautiful album a listen. It'll blow you away. A-… Collapse
  2. kermie_the_frog
    Jan 5, 2020
    9
    This challenging and bleak record has one of the most gripping and brilliant opening tracks I've ever heard. Besides Lift Your Skinny Fists, I think this is their best record to date.
  3. agunsux
    Dec 9, 2012
    8
    At 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
  4. Rustune
    Apr 25, 2013
    8
    Life in a soundtrack. There are the drones and then there are the pieces that sound like classic Godspeed doing there dark yet sentimental look on the world. This album has beauty. It has strength. Most of all though it has you, its listener who it will toy with until its very end...
  5. All_ButTrU4
    Dec 14, 2021
    7
    Spellbinding four tracks that take you on a dark 53min journey down decay,solitude and loneliness. Watching a documentary about social decline whilst numb and scrolling through your iphone,barely paying attention to either action.

Awards & Rankings

92
#92 Best Album of 2012

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Universal acclaim - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. Blurt Magazine
    Jan 2, 2013
    70
    This 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.
    Read full review
  2. cokemachineglow
    Dec 21, 2012
    60
    Godspeed You! Black Emperor offer a majestic, beautiful coda for a version of protest that is dated and unhelpful today. I missed having their music around, but I wonder whose eyes they're opening with a record that sounds like a document of yesterday's anger.
    Read full review
  3. Mojo
    Dec 17, 2012
    80
    Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! feels simultaneously enormous and tragic; the sound of victory, firmly set in the jaws of defeat. [Jan 2013, p.91]
See all critic reviews »