Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ Barrowlands, Glasgow, 30 Sep

Tashi Dorji, the Bhutanese improvisational guitarist opens tonight's show. He cuts a lonely figure on the vast Barrowland stage, flanked by a big, blank screen. His serrated fretwork and atonal plucks aren't even steady enough to be called noodling, but he comes into his own when he starts on the delay pedals. There's a compositional air as he builds a distorted crescendo to a fever pitch. He rides the peaks and troughs for perhaps a little too long, but there's clear talent in building this sort of thing from scratch on the fly.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor shows have taken on legendary status over the years for their careful curation, power and ability to transport listeners to another plain, and tonight is no exception. Hope Drone opens with a slow piling of layers. Thierry Amar (double bass) and Sophie Trudeau (violin) begin, and are slowly joined by more guitars and percussion. The song begins to lift as the scrawled message – 'HOPE' – flickers on the projection.

Considering the (non-)title of their latest album, the new material is accompanied by reasonably placid 16mm scenes of nature. BABYS IN A THUNDERCLOUD focuses on trees and a small bird, SUN IS A HOLE SUN IS VAPORS on a slow-moving river on an autumn day, leaves gently gliding on the surface. The music itself is simultaneously bleak and grandiose: the double drums, triple guitar and double bass (two guitars) attacks hit with intensity, but when the wall of sound crumbles and a gorgeous violin phrase or guitar motif emerges, it's simply beautiful.

First of the Last Glaciers features graceful jellyfish that are alternately hypnotising and nightmarish, perhaps an apt descriptor of the band's whole vibe. Their more brutal edge can be seen on Fire at Static Valley, featuring scenes of riot suppression and oil refinery blazes. Aidan Girt and Timothy Herzog's crisp double drumming stands out, adding more texture than oomph through perfectly mixed cymbal hits.

Guitar assaults feature heavily on the new double-header, PALE SPECTATOR TAKES PHOTOGRAPHS / GREY RUBBLE – GREEN SHOOTS, Efrim Menuck, Mike Moya and David Bryant coalescing in revolving figure-eights as the aggressive static increases in intensity. Sometimes images of abstract pulses hit as hard as the clips of eco-violence and bomb tests.

Piss Crowns are Trebled continues the winning streak of projectionist Karl Lemieux (the video playing behind the band is manually reeled live), combining natural found footage and looped experimental shorts while the thrilling violin melody battles with the grinding guitar riffs, until the whole is subsumed in cataclysmic noise. As is the case all night, the mixing is pristine – it's shocking how easy it is to pick out individual sounds with so much going on.

The Sad Mafioso section of East Hastings closes the show, fulfilling the hopes of many based on the crowd reaction. It's everything that GY!BE are known for: ringing guitar tones, rumbling bass and tumbling drums. A plane is caught in a death spiral as Trudeau's violin occasionally peeks out amid the relentless, distorted tempest. But sheer force is the final victor in Godspeed's pitting of brutality vs beauty.

The band disperse one by one and leave gradually diminishing feedback in their midst. Sonic detritus follows you out the exit, first from the band's drones and then the ringing in your ears. As the audio impression starts to fade, the complete experience reassembles in your memory – a powerful, unforgettable statement from a supreme collective.