Prepare for the apocalypse.
Avant-garde instrumentalists godspeed you black emperor! are best experienced in one of two ways: under the influence of mind-bending hallucinogens or in a dark room full of scratchy home video footage and the nine-member band itself, conjuring sounds you didn't think possible.
godspeed navigate between clattering violence and twinkling melancholy like a symphony, so restrained that you can almost taste the anticipation. With their two drummers, violins, piano and guitars, the band's style could be described as sound collage. But godspeed make more than musical hodgepodge-melodies do unfold beneath the surging dynamics, if you pay attention. The band billows like a tempest, baiting the listener with harrowing silences and dramatic, blistering interludes.
The band will be playing The Wherehouse in Winston-Salem this Sunday, touring behind their recent two-disc opus, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. As its title implies, the album is a hypnotic transmission, one that traverses even beyond the the narrative awe of their critically acclaimed EP, Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada. Why that title? Well, they're from Canada. But don't worry-the godspeed you black emperor! experience has nothing in common with Celine Dion or Bryan Adams.
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