Godspeed You! Black Emperor – The Forum, London 04/11/12

-

Given the calibre of the shows they’ve been turning in the past few years, most of us would have been perfectly content if the return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor was solely an exercise in nostalgia. Their reformation served to prove that, even when they were playing old material, they were still so far ahead of the rest of the current post-rock pack that they could afford to rest on past glories a little. Tonight however they’re playing not only in support of a remarkable new record, but also have some new music with them, in the shape of one forty five minute long song. To say they sound invigorated by being a fully functioning, forward moving band once more is like saying Hurricane Sandy got things a bit wet.

With the amount of common ground they share, it’s easy to see why Dead Rat Orchestra were chosen to open up tonight’s show – they’re drawing from a similar well to tonight’s headliners, but have more than enough going for themselves to warrant investigation on their own terms. The trio of Daniel Merrill, Robin Alderton and Nathaniel Mann make abstract folk music that utilises harmoniums, violins and flutes to conjure distinctly earthy tones – using them as the basis for a series of yarns that are as curious as the instrumentation is traditional (their most recent album revolved around the story of a community on the Isle of Lewis and their traditional gannet hunt). Neither set in stone nor totally made up on the spot, it succeeds in enchanting just enough of an early-doors crowd desperate for what’s to follow – no mean feat given the levels of anticipation in the room.

As is now customary, Godspeed begin by saturating the room in their ‘Hope Drone’ – quite simply, a long, drawn out dirge that soundtracks the ominous flickering of the word ‘HOPE’ on the screen at the back of the stage. Seemingly without consultation with one another, they launch head first in to new record Allelujah! Don’t Bend, Ascend!’’s opener ‘Mladic’ with almost mechanical precision – the mutating of the riffs that arrive from the previous dull squall leaving the front few rows punch-drunk with their sheer intensity.

It happens to be the only track from their new LP we get this evening, with the rest of the set taking dips in to their most glorious, melodious territory (a truly marvellous ‘Gathering Storm’) and, in the shape of the aptly named, three quarter of an hour long new tune ‘Behemoth’, some of their most intensely challenging work too. This latest arrival to the setlist moves from funereal thuds to ambient droning via noises that resemble encounters with aliens in Sixties b-movies, all climaxing in a riff that seems to suck every breath of air from The Forum. After it, even the sombre creepiness of early fan-favourite ‘East Hastings’ seems somehow like respite.

Or it would, were it not acting tonight as the soundtrack to images projected behind the band of marching protestors, soaked in a blood red hue, carrying placards demanding that we ‘Take back The Future’. As they always have been, Godspeed tonight are about more than the music – everything from the accompanying visuals to the track titles has an “us against them”/”fuck the man” vibe to it that the sounds they create sometimes seem to exist only to amplify. Despite not singing a single word at us, they’re still the most thrilling political band around, if not just the most thrilling band around full stop.