Godspeed You! Black Emperor 
No Title As of February 13 2024, 28,340 Dead 
(Constellation Records)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian progressive rock ensemble, formed in 1997, now centred on a musical line-up of guitars, two drummers, bass and violin with heavy use of sound FX, synths and voice recordings. 

Their long form, mainly instrumental tracks contain hard hitting anti-capitalist, anti-war sentiments. The bands’ live shows are equally compelling, with a heavy reliance on the use of 16mm film footage, loops and full-on sonic assaults. 

No Title is their ninth studio album. The title refers to the numbers killed in Gaza, since the start of the Israeli military onslaught after October 7 2023, with 45,515 dead as of today, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Speaking ahead of the album release in February 2024 the band put out the following statement: “No Title = What gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? What context? What broken melody? And then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.”

The first track, Sun Is a Hole Sun Is Vapors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55CLYupTQpQ  opens up around distant sound FX — muted children crying — then dives into intense melodic overdriven feedback guitars, played by David Bryant, setting the scene sonically. Shades of Jimi Hendrix combine with an Amazing Grace anthemic feel over underpinning bass motifs. A slow start builds into further graceful guitar and off-centre synth drone work, then transforms into slide guitar textures, held bass notes and sounds of distant crowds. 

The subsequent tracks work this sonic palette: Baby’s in a Thundercloud starts with slow arching space synth atmospheres and haunting pulse lines before developing into mournful overdriven guitars and pounding drums; Raindrops Cast in Lead builds around bass, slow organ pulses and reverb guitars, held notes and threatening intent; and On Broken Spires at Dead Kapital strings lead the funeral-like drive developing into a slow medieval military drum march breakdown section, complete with what sounds like the sound of a swarm of distant bees. 

Pale Spectator Takes Photographs combines Japanese influences and highbrow synth design prior to explosive guitar feedback focus. Grey Rubble – Green Shoots, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYv8dmzYhAw , the final track, takes on a final calm reflective feel, with Sophie Trudeau, the bands violin player taking centre-stage, as guitars ease up. 

A reflective but highly charged ending to an intensely important album.