Album Of The Week: Godspeed You! Black Emperor Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!

I may have heard these songs before. "Mladic" and "We Drift Like Worried Fire," the two 20-minute slabs of epicness that make up the meat of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's new album Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, were in the band's live rotation when they blinked out of existence in 2003. That year was also the one time I successfully managed to see Godspeed live -- in a Baltimore Masonic Temple where the mysterious symbols circling the beautiful dome were and odd but perfect complement to the obfuscated emotional swells of the music. But I couldn't say whether they played either of those two songs that night, since the entire concept of "songs" seems pretty small compared to the massive, overwhelming tidal waves of sound you'd hear at a Godspeed show. I don't remember much of what I saw or heard that night; I just remember disappearing into a mental fugue state, feeling like that music was lifting me up and pulling me apart. It's one of my all-time favorite live-show experiences, but I don't know whether the music I heard that night was the same music I'm hearing on their new album, and it doesn't much matter. What matters is that I'm once again getting a tiny taste of that sensation, and it's a sensation I'm happy to have back.