For those who don’t know, Godspeed! You Black Emperor is a Canadian post rock band that gained notoriety back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. In a lot of ways, it is less a band and more an orchestra as there are about 10 people in the group with a wide variety of instruments.

I like to describe the music as ‘art rock for the post apocalypse.’ There are no vocals, but the music manages to take you places filled with emotion. It is often very dynamic where it has moments of soft breathy calm and then dives into the more raucous chaos.

This album in particular is very melancholy. It feels like the core idea is that of lamentations of all that is wrong in the world right now. Though, I can’t say that is any different from their previous albums. I think the band has honed their craft to near perfection, but I can’t help but feel like their earlier albums were much more memorable.

So, the crux of it is that you should probably enjoy depressing instrumental music before launching into this album. If you like post rock, like Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai, you will enjoy this for sure. I keep this music at the ready on my Zune for when the zombie apocalypse hits and you should, too!