Godspeed You! Black Emperor

It is hard to overestimate the influence that the Canadian post-rock icons Godspeed You! Black Emperor have had on contemporary alternative music. Their way of patiently and repetitively moving their atmospheric chamber rock from cautiously quiet moments to volcanic crescendos remains unmatched, and few can, like them, effortlessly shift between rage, hope, despair, chaos, and beauty. This is a formula that GY!BE has refined ever since their genre-defining debut 'F#A#∞' in 1997. Another constant is the multimedia Montreal group's approach to addressing contemporary politics. In their apocalyptic works, doom is ever-present, anti-capitalism is alive, and raw individualism is constantly under attack.

As mentioned, GY!BE debuted with 'F#A#∞,' but it was with the majestic double album 'Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven' (2000) that the band achieved their major breakthrough. Today, it is considered a classic that often appears in rankings of the best rock albums of the 21st century. After 'Yanqui U.X.O.' (2002), the band took a temporary hiatus but made a triumphant return with 'Alleluja! Don't Bend! Ascend' in 2012 and has since released four more acclaimed albums. The latest is titled 'No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead,' with the number brutally reflecting how many Palestinians had died from Israeli attacks between October 7, 2023, and February 13, 2024. A unanimous critical consensus has called the album one of the band's very best—a high compliment when it comes to Godspeed You! Black Emperor—and it is with this album in tow that they will be coming to Sweden in the spring. On March 19, they will perform at Fållan in Stockholm, and on March 20, at Pustervik in Gothenburg.

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