The only other release by the band to rival Asunder in its sheer distilled potency, is the half-hour Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada EP. What's more the four tracks that make up the album play through as one single suite, resulting in a potent statement that it's tough to argue against always sitting through in its entirety (as if 'motherfucker=redeemer' had been its own album). Firstly, it's a mere 40 minutes long - which is short by anybody's modern standards, let alone for the band which popularised the 20-minute plus track time for a whole generation. 'Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress' is exceptional in the GY!BE canon in a whole heap of ways. However, once up and running, the world's largest manmade vessels are tough to stop, and the revived GY!BE could not, it seems, halt once more. They were clearing the revolutionary's docket for good, before signing off and leaving a truly fucked up modern society to stew in its own hateful mess - and without the appropriate soundtrack. The two long tracks that made up the lion's share of 'Allelujah! in fact dated back to the group's final pre-hiatus tour in 2003, with fully-formed versions of 'Mladic' and 'We Drift Like Worried Fire' performed under the titles 'Albanian' and 'Gamelan' - so perhaps that's just what 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! was about: dealing with unfinished business. Besides, unfinished business is a reason to keep on living, and once it's done, you're done. GY!BE's decision to go on indefinite hiatus back in 2003 - which ended up lasting a decade - was in many ways the ultimate act of defiance. The biggest threat to modern culture is the remake/rehash/revive phenomenon, where terrible film franchises are kept alive, and decaying musicians are prevented from going the way of the dodo, propped up by the public's insatiable thirst for repeated, safe 'content'. The triumphant return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor with 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! was an odd move.
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