Godspeed You! Black Emperor – NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's latest album, in all of its warped, noisy instrumentation, is the embodiment of music as art

Album Review by Oscar Lund | 30 Sep 2024
  • Godspeed You! Black Emperor – NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD
Album title: NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD
Artist: Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Label: Constellation
Release date: 4 Oct

NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD marks the eighth album in the discography of the elusive Canadian post-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Over the last 26 years the group has cultivated a mystique only reserved for select bands who refuse to engage with the music industry’s media circus, rarely giving interviews and being openly hostile to large record labels. Their work has often been explicitly political, with the sleeve of their 2002 album Yanqui U.X.O. detailing connections between music conglomerates and the military industrial complex. Similarly, the collective’s 2021 album, G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!, serves as a soundtrack to the dream of an immolative end of US imperialism. 

In this context, NO TITLE... brings an unmistakable political message through an incredibly sombre composition. The album’s title is in reference to the heavy civilian losses experienced in Gaza since Israel's ruthless bombardment of Palestine that began almost a year prior to the album’s release. The project’s longest track, RAINDROPS CAST IN LEAD illustrates this context of war by building a relentless rhythm throughout its 13-minute duration, eventually breaking into a scream of electric strings and beating drums, leading us into the next song. 

The track BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL acts as the antithesis to RAINDROPS..., offering droning ominous instrumentation paired with mournful strings. Gradually warping and tearing as it progresses, the track eventually breaks into a slow parading drumbeat – a requiem for a loss of not only a people, but of a place too. The album’s closing track GREY RUBBLE – GREEN SHOOTS injects an atom of hope into what is otherwise a doom-laden album, with its title and interspersed guitar riffs indicating that through pain and destruction there is a chance that those left behind can rebuild. 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s resistance against western imperialism and military intervention manifests itself in a sonically intricate and emotionally devastating project. Given that the death toll of Israel's genocide in the Gaza strip has almost doubled since the date outlined by the album’s title, the LP remains increasingly relevant. 

While certainly not a work for casual listening, NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD is, in all of its warped, noisy instrumentation, the embodiment of music as art. Removed from corporate influence, conventional song segmentation, and algorithmically tuned track lengths, Godspeed You! Black Emperor are free to convey a message uncompromised. 

Album artwork for Godspeed You! Black Emperor – NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD. Photo of a sparsely decorated recording studio.

Listen to: BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL, GREY RUBBLE – GREEN SHOOTS, RAINDROPS CAST IN LEAD