ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND!

After ten years since Yanqui U.X.O. seemed to herald a mild drop in Godspeed's usually high levels of quality, the band return with a set of heavily road-tested compositions which prove that they may have become much less prolific than side-projects such as A Silver Mt. Zion but they're still the kings of Canadian post-rock.

Aside from some loudhailer noises at the start the album once again eschews the sort of found audio snippets which jazzed up earlier Godspeed works, focusing instead on the instrumental performances much as Yanqui U.X.O. did, but a production which steps away from the sometimes sterile textures of Yanqui makes it sound more like a continuation of the classic Godspeed aesthetic of Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada or Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. At the same time, unusually harsh riffing towards the beginning of Mladic finds the band exploring textures and approaches which are new to Godspeed's work, so the band has far from stood still over the last decade. If we're only to get one Godspeed album per decade, I'm fine with it so long as the albums are as good as this one.