Godspeed You Black Emperor! – 'Allelujah! Don't Bend Ascend (2xLP)

Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor marks a triumphant return after a decade-long absence. The album feels both ancient and urgent, weaving sprawling instrumental narratives across two nearly 20‑minute tracks and two atmospheric drones. Its textures and crescendos—a blend of hopeful strings, menacing drones, and disciplined noise—resonate with cathartic power, reminding listeners why the band set the standard for emotive post‑rock. The record was widely hailed as a comeback and awarded the 2013 Polaris Music Prize, cementing its impact on the modern experimental rock landscape.

Critics celebrated its artistry and emotional breadth. On Pitchfork, Mark Richardson praised the album as “an album of music that is both new and old from a band that we thought we might never hear from again, one we should appreciate while we can.” The Guardian declared it “beautiful, thrilling and exhausting. The Godspeed ethos of wordlessly eliciting universal truths … remains as devastatingly effective as ever.” A closer listen called it “a contemporary classic… someone had finally nailed the eminent band’s template.” Tinymixtapes observed that “the sublime becomes the achingly beautiful. We are so relieved…” Chromewaves wrote that the album is “surprisingly concise and impressively powerful, condensing the sprawl … into two focused movements that build steadily … but also surprisingly melodically.”

Reviews
"An album of music that is both new and old from a band that we thought we might never hear from again, one we should appreciate while we can." – Pitchfork

"It's beautiful, thrilling and exhausting. The Godspeed ethos of wordlessly eliciting universal truths is remains as devastatingly effective as ever." – The Guardian

"…a contemporary classic... someone had finally nailed the eminent band’s template." – A Closer Listen

"The sublime becomes the achingly beautiful. We are so relieved, and we don’t care how or why it happened…" – Tinymixtapes

"…surprisingly concise and impressively powerful, condensing the sprawl … into two focused movements that build steadily … but also surprisingly melodically." – Chromewaves