Festival Music
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Edinburgh Playhouse
Neil Cooper
five stars
WHEN, on Monday, night the power went down in parts of Edinburgh a stone's throw from the Playhouse shortly after Godspeed You! Black Emperor had performed the live soundtrack to dance troupe The Holy Tattoo's frenetic performance of monumental, it was as if the apocalypse the Montreal sired octet had been presaging for so long had finally begun. If such a prospect was unfounded by what was merely the city's shoddy electrics, it nevertheless recalled the power failure caused by GY!BE when they understandably blew the private view size speakers in Stills Gallery during their first Edinburgh appearance.
Eighteen years on, and after two nights of monumental, the shadowy collective's insistent brand of baroque metal sounds like an even more urgent point of holy salvation in an increasingly dark world. With a low rumble already on the go as the audience enter, things begin with a free-ish alliance of double bass and fiddle as the rest of the band gradually join in on a version of the still unreleased Hope Drone.
Flanked by split screen images of barren town and country landscapes, every nuance of the largely seated alliance of three guitarists, two bass players, two drummers and fiddler Sophie Trudeau is distilled through a state of art PA brought in by EIF with a clarity that bombards without ever overwhelming. Shades of melancholy, triumph and despair permeate through what at moments morphs into a fractured Celtic lament, at others a barn dance at the end of the world, before the ensemble departs to a wall of feedback. Outside, the lights may be on, but it looks like the flood is on its way.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here