Record of the Week is Luciferian Towers, the return of the mighty Godspeed You! Black Emperor, their third release since reuniting in 2010. To oversimplify things, GY!BE have two broad settings. One is the sound of pure desolation, the sounds that dwell deep at the base of the blackest soul. The other one is the polar opposite, as intense, but the sound of sunlight exploding everything around it into the most euphoric of glows. So who would have thought that against the backdrop of social, political, economic and environmental disasters all around us, the Montreal ensemble would deliver an album that is arguably their most melodic and is certainly one of hope and pure white-knuckled-joy!

There's a section right in the eye of the tightly wound hysteria (at the end of the first side) that sounds like that punchy intro to Joe Cocker's take on 'With a Little Help from My Friends'... god damn it's some powerful stuff. We are fans and we are disciples, but Luciferian Towers is damn good, even by their lofty standards. 

Physically it's a gem too, a heavyweight 180gram audiophile pressing from Optimal (Germany) and comes in a gatefold jacket printed on uncoated paperboard with a printed inner dust sleeve and a 24"x24" pull-out poster that re-caps all four of the artwork panels created by Godspeed You! Black Emperor for the gatefold jacket. Also includes a DL card for 320kbps MP3 album.

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