Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE or Godspeed) is a Canadian

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

collective that originated in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

in 1994. The group releases recordings through

Constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

, an

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

also located in Montreal. The group released their debut album ''

F♯ A♯ ∞ ''F♯ A♯ ∞'' (pronounced "F-sharp, A-sharp, Infinity") is the debut studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was first released on August 14, 1997, through Constellation Records on a single LP and on June 8, ...

'', in 1997 and toured regularly from 1998 to 2003. Their second album '' Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven'' (2000) received critical acclaim and has been named as one of the best albums of the decade. Following the release of ''

Yanqui U.X.O. '' U.X.O.'' is the third studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released on November 4, 2002 by Constellation Records (Canada), Constellation. It was recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago in late 20 ...

'' (2002), the band went on hiatus in 2003 to pursue other musical interests. The band was rumored to have broken up, but reformed in 2010. Their first post-reunion album ''

'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! ''Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!'' (sometimes stylized in all caps) is the fourth studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released by Constellation Records. It was their first album since 2002's '' Yanqui U.X.O.''. A ...

'' (2012) won the

2013 Polaris Music Prize The 2013 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 23, 2013

. This was followed by ''

Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress ''Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress'' is the fifth studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released on 31 March 2015 by Constellation Records (Canada), Constellation Records. The album was recorded with Electrical A ...

'' (2015), ''

Luciferian Towers ''Luciferian Towers'' (sometimes stylized with quotation marks) is the sixth studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released on 22 September 2017 by Constellation Records. Background According to the Constellation ...

'' (2017), ''

G_d's Pee at State's End! G, or g, is the seventh letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''gee'' (pronounced ), plural ''gees''. The lower ...

'' (2021) and ''

No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead ''No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead'' (stylized in all caps and with quotation marks) is the eighth studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released on 4 October 2024 by Constellation Records. It follows ...

'' (2024). The band has a dedicated

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

and is renowned for being influential in the

genre. Their music, mainly instrumental in nature, has been noted for its contrasts between ambient soundscapes and chaotic crescendos; use of

field recordings Field recording is the production of audio recordings outside recording studios, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It can also include the recording of electromagnetic fields or vibrations using dif ...

and

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

monologues; and focus on

dystopian A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmenta ...

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

and

anti-war An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...

themes. Members of the group have formed a number of

side project In popular music, a side project is a project undertaken by one or more people already known for their involvement in another band. It can also be an artist or a band temporarily switching to a different style. Usually these projects emphasize ...

s, including Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band,

Fly Pan Am Fly Pan Am, or Le Fly Pan Am, are a Canadian experimental rock band formed in Montreal in 1996. They release their albums through the Montreal-based Constellation Records, producing and collaborating on works with Godspeed You! Black Emperor ...

Hrsta Hrsta (stylized as HṚṢṬA) (; , , ) is a Montreal post-rock band currently signed to Constellation Records. The band's leader, Mike Moya (guitar and vocals), was one of the founding members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Hrsta's sound h ...

Esmerine Esmerine is a Canadian modern chamber music group that incorporates genres such as post-rock, drone music, post-punk, and Turkish folk. Founded in Montreal in 2000 by Bruce Cawdron (drums) and Beckie Foon (cello), the band has released six albu ...

, and

Set Fire to Flames Set Fire to Flames was a Canadian instrumental music ensemble consisting of 13 musicians from Montreal, Quebec.

History

First run (1994–2003)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor was formed in 1994 in

, by

Efrim Menuck Efrim Manuel Menuck (; born November 4, 1970) is a Canadian musician involved with a number of Montreal-based bands, most notably Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. Menuck is also a frequent record producer ...

(

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

Mike Moya Mike Moya (born December 1, 1969) is a Canadians, Canadian rock music, rock musician, who is one of the founding members of post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. He left the band in 1998 to concentrate on his other bands Molasses, Set Fir ...

(guitar), and

Mauro Pezzente Mauro Pezzente is a Canadian musician. He is best known as being co-founder of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Pezzente, along with Efrim Menuck and Mike Moya, founded Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 1994. Along with Thierry Amar, Pezzente plays t ...

(

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

).Colin Larkin.
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
''. Omnibus Press; 27 May 2011. . p. 1439. The band took its name from ''

God Speed You! Black Emperor is a 1976 Japanese black-and-white 16 mm documentary film by director Mitsuo Yanagimachi that follows the exploits of young Japanese motorcyclists known as the "Black Emperors". The 1970s in Japan saw the rise of a motorcycling movement ...

'', a 1976 Japanese

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

by director

Mitsuo Yanagimachi is a Japanese screenwriter and film director. Career Born in Namegata District, Ibaraki, Yanagimachi attended the Faculty of Law at Waseda University but began studying filmmaking. Working as a freelance assistant director after graduating, he ...

, which follows the exploits of a Japanese biker gang, the Black Emperors. The band initially assembled after being offered a supporting act for another local band named Steak 72. Thereafter, the trio performed live on a few separate occasions. Previously, the name "God Speed You Black Emperor!" had been used by Menuck on a limited cassette entitled '' All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' that had been recorded the year prior, with limited contributions by Pezzente on bass, although it would not be until 1994 that the actual band formed. The band expanded and continued to perform live. According to Menuck, joining the group was simple: "It was like if anyone knew anybody who played an instrument and seemed like an okay person, they would sort of join up." The group's number of members frequently changed during this time. Local musicians would often join the band for a handful of performances, then depart. The revolving door nature of the group's membership frequently caused it strain before the release of ''

''. After that release, the group stabilized around a nine-person lineup with Menuck, Moya and David Bryant on guitars, Pezzente and Thierry Amar on bass guitars, Aidan Girt and Bruce Cawdron on drums, and Sophie Trudeau and Norsola Johnson on violin and cello respectively. Moya would depart in 1998 to focus on HṚṢṬA, being replaced by Roger Tellier-Craig of

. Tellier-Craig left in 2004 to devote more time to Fly Pan Am. In 2002, the band released their third album ''

'', which was recorded in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and engineered by

Steve Albini Steven Frank Albini (; July 22, 1962 – May 7, 2024) was an American musician and audio engineer. He founded and fronted the influential post-hardcore and noise rock bands Big Black (1981–1987), Rapeman (1987–1989) and Shellac (band), ...

. The group was once misconstrued as being a band of

terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

. After stopping at a local gas station for fuel in the town of

Ardmore, Oklahoma Ardmore is the county seat of Carter County, Oklahoma, Carter County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 24,725 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 1.8% increase over the 2010 census figure of 24,283. The Ardmo ...

, during their 2003 tour of the United States, the station attendant working that day believed the group of Canadians to be terrorists. She quickly passed a note to another customer asking them to call the police. When the local police appeared, the group was held until it could be questioned by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

. Although the police were suspicious of the band's anti-government documents and some photos it had (such as those of oil rigs), they found no incriminating evidence. After

background check A background check is a process used by an organisation or person to verify that an individual is who they claim to be, and check their past record to confirm education, employment history, and other activities, and for a criminal record. The fr ...

s were run, the ensemble was released from custody and continued on its way to its next show in Saint Louis.

later spoke to the crowd during their appearance in Missouri about what happened to them and speculated that their origin was a motive for being released quickly ("It's a good thing we're nice white kids from Canada"). The incident was mentioned in

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

's book ''

Dude, Where's My Country? ''Dude, Where's My Country?'' is a 2003 book by Michael Moore dealing with corporate and political events in the United States. The title is a satirical reworking of the 2000 film '' Dude, Where's My Car?''. The book covers many topics and is wri ...

''. In July 2003, Constellation Records posted a note on their website reading: "godspeed will be on hiatus for the better part of a year, while the band members work on their many other projects".

Reunion (2010–present)

On April 9, 2010, the band announced it was reuniting for an

All Tomorrow's Parties "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released as the band's debut single in 1966. The song is from their 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Inspiration for the so ...

music event in the UK as well as further US dates. "after a decade’s retreat, god’s pee has decided to roll again", read the statement. Mike Moya re-joined the band for the reunion, while original cellist Norsola Johnson declined to participate. The band played a full North American and European tour in 2011, and more dates in the UK including an appearance at the ATP '

I'll Be Your Mirror "I'll Be Your Mirror" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico. It appeared on their 1967 debut album ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. It also surfaced as a single a year earlier with "All Tomorrow's Parties" in 1966. Lou Reed wrote the so ...

' music festival in London. The following year, the band appeared at the

Pitchfork Music Festival Pitchfork Music Festival was an annual music festival in Union Park (Chicago), Union Park in Chicago, Illinois, organized by the online magazine ''Pitchfork (website), Pitchfork.'' Starting in 2011, the festival announced a branch staged in Paris ...

in Chicago,

Coachella Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...

in California, and the

I'll Be Your Mirror festival in New York. Drummer Timothy Herzog began touring with the band after the departure of Bruce Cawdron. In 2013, the band won the

Polaris Music Prize The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize. The prize was inc ...

for their fourth album ''

'', but it criticized the cost of the ceremony during the time of

austerity In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...

, stating, "Maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords." The band's fifth album ''

'' was released on March 31, 2015, and the sixth album ''

'' came out on September 22, 2017. In August 2019, the band played new songs tentatively titled "Glaciers" and "Cliff". They would appear on the band's seventh album ''

,'' which was released on April 2, 2021. In February 2022, a copy of '' All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' was posted to

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, mu ...

's music board, /mu/. The band eventually uploaded the full audio of the tape to its official

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

page on February 14. On February 24, 2024, the band debuted three new untitled songs at the

Knockdown Center Knockdown Center is a cultural space, performance venue, and art center, located in the Maspeth, Queens, Maspeth neighborhood of Queens, New York City. The Center includes many architecturally notable features: 20,000 square-foot main hall, a back ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. On August 28, 2024, the band announced its eighth album, ''

'', supported by the lead single "Grey Rubble – Green Shoots". Its title references the death toll of Palestinians in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

during the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

at the time of the album's conception.

Live concerts

Film loop projections are an important aspect of the group's live performances, explained by

as "

utting Utting am Ammersee (until 1953 just Utting) is a municipality in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany. History During World War II, a subcamp of Dachau concentration camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentratio ...

the whole into context". The band is

taper Taper may refer to: * Part of an object in the shape of a cone (conical) * Taper (transmission line), a transmission line gradually increasing or decreasing in size * Fishing rod taper, a measure of the flexibility of a fishing rod * Conically ta ...

-friendly; they allow audience members to record their live performances, and fans often release new material before the band makes an official recording. The band toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time in February 2013, including a performance at the

I'll Be Your Mirror festival in Melbourne. They toured China for the first time in April 2013, giving performances in Shanghai and Beijing, and revisited China in March 2016. The band supported

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

on its

Tension tour The Tension Tour is the ongoing sixteenth headlining concert tour by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue. It commenced on 15 February 2025 in Perth, Australia, and is set to conclude on 26 August 2025 in Monterrey, Mexico, consisting of ...

in October 2013. In 2015 and 2016, the band performed numerous concert and festival shows around the world. Two new songs were previewed in many of the shows picking up the fan titles "Buildings" and "Railroads" from the projections that accompanied them. The band also lent live performances of their songs to a revival of the 2005 work "monumental" by Canadian dance troupe Holy Body Tattoo in 2016. The band is set to perform in ten countries across Europe and North America in 2024 and 2025.

Politics

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' wrote that Godspeed You! Black Emperor "don't simply espouse

anti-capitalism Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism with an alternati ...

but embody it, rejecting the selfish individualism at its core", pointing out how the band's operation as a collective challenges traditional notions of hierarchy. In a 2012 interview, Menuck said, "All music is political, right? You either make music that pleases the king and his court, or you make music for the serfs outside the walls ... We started making this noise together when we were young and broke. Whatever politics we had were born out of living through a time when the dominant narrative was that everything was fine." Several of its songs also incorporate voice samples which express political sentiments, most notably "The Dead Flag Blues" (on ''F♯ A♯ ∞'') and "BBF3" (on ''

Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada ''Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada'' (stylised as ''Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada'') is the only EP and second release by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was released on the Montreal-based record label Constellation Records in 1999, and was re-rel ...

''). In 2014 Menuck identified himself as an

. This perspective has influenced the band's political activism. The back cover of ''

'' depicts the relationships of several

major record labels "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

to the

military–industrial complex The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the Arms industry, defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving fac ...

. The liner notes of '''Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!'' criticize anti-environmentalist economic development and student protest suppression. Menuck is a vocal critic of Israeli policy towards Palestinians. The

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

to ''

'' (2002) describe the song "09-15-00" as "

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...

surrounded by 1,000

Israeli soldiers The Israeli Ground Forces () are the ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The commander is the General Officer Commanding with the rank of major general, the ''Mazi'', subordinate to the Chief of General Staff. An order from Defe ...

marching on al-Haram Ash-Sharif & provoking another

Intifada Intifada () is an Arabic word for a rebellion or uprising, or a resistance movement. It can also be used to refer to a civilian uprising against oppression.Ute Meinel''Die Intifada im Ölscheichtum Bahrain: Hintergründe des Aufbegehrens von 19 ...

". The title of ''

'' references the death toll of Palestinians in the

during the

at the time of the album's conception. In 2021, the band joined more than 600 other musicians in pledging to boycott Israel until it ends its occupation of Palestinian territories.

Members

Current *

– guitar,

tape loops In music, tape loops are loops of magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound when played on a tape recorder. Originating in the 1940s with the work of Pierre Schaeffer, they were used among con ...

, keyboards *

– bass guitar *

– guitar *

Thierry Amar Thierry Amar is a Canadian musician, engineer and producer. He is a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Earthquake Architecture, Molasses, The Craig Pedersen Quartet and Black Ox Orkes ...

– double bass, bass guitar * David Bryant – guitar, tape loops *

Aidan Girt Aidan Girt is a Canadian drummer for the Montreal-based post-rock collectives Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Exhaust. He is also a solo electronic artist under the names ''OSB'', ''1-Speed Bike'', and ''Bottleskup Flenkenkenmike'' and continues ...

– drums, percussion * Sophie Trudeau – violin *

Karl Lemieux Karl Lemieux is a Canadian film director best known for his collaborations with Montreal-based post rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor and his 2016 film ''Shambles''. Biography Karl Lemieux joined Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 2010 – when ...

– film projections * Timothy Herzog – drums, percussion * Philippe Léonard – film projections Former * Thea Pratt –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

* Dano LeBlanc – drums * Jesse Pratt – violin * Bruce Cawdron – drums, percussion * Norsola Johnson – cello * Grayson Walker –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

* Christophe Comte – violin * Roger Tellier-Craig – guitar * Mark Littlefair – film projections * Jean-Sébastian Truchy – film projections * Fluffy Erskine – film projections Timeline

Discography

Studio albums *''

'' (1997) *'' Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven'' (2000) *''

'' (2002) *''

'' (2012) *''

'' (2015) *''

'' (2017) *''

'' (2021) *''

'' (2024)

Notes

References

External links

*
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
on Constellation Records * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Godspeed You Black Emperor Musical groups established in 1994 Musical groups disestablished in 2003 Musical groups reestablished in 2010 Musical groups from Montreal Canadian post-rock groups Musical collectives Anti-corporate activism Constellation Records (Canada) artists Polaris Music Prize winners 1994 establishments in Quebec Kranky (record label) artists