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Gig Review
Godspeed You! Black Emperor The Forum, Kentish Town, London
Article written by
Michael H - Nov 8, 2012
The drunken chatter of the group next to me slowly fades away as they realise that the loud rumble that has been steadily increasing in volume for the last few minutes isn’t a prelude to the band, it is the band. Godspeed You! Black Emperor slowly file onto the stage, take up their instruments and proceed to demolish the minds of the audience for the rest of the evening.
The word ‘rapt’, as a description of an audience, is often unwarranted; no gig is ever complete without at least a small squad of the verbally incontinent. Tonight, however, the attention of thousands of eyes and ears was an almost tangible presence in the room as the band ripped a series of intense crescendos from long doomy drones. The peaks of their songs when played live are utterly cathartic after the tense and patient ascent that they submit the audience to. Their music is a gripping exercise in contrasting despair and hope; thick fogs of noise suddenly lifting into fleeting explosions of light.