Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Godspeed You! Black Emperor made a profound impact on indie music in the late ’90s and early 2000s, helping set the post-rock template with shuddering orchestral swells and leftist dystopian visions. Godspeed formed in Montreal in 1994, when founders Efrim Menuck, Mike Moya, and Mauro Pezzente named their budding collaboration after the title of a documentary about a Japanese biker gang. The trio soon expanded in a larger ensemble, and the inclusion of violin, cello, and double bass along with typical rock instrumentation brought a widescreen depth to Godspeed’s 1997 debut, F♯ A♯ ∞. They perfected their climactic, loud-quiet-loud dynamic on their critically acclaimed 2000 follow-up, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, setting a standard for other post-rock bands like MONO and Explosions In the Sky. The members took a hiatus in 2003, but Godspeed made a comeback in 2010, and they’ve continued to push creative and political boundaries with the volatile soundscapes of albums like 2017’s Luciferian Towers. Although Godspeed’s music is mostly instrumental, their album art and liner notes include provocative anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anarchist messages—underscoring the fact that this band’s bleak outlook comes with a sense of collective promise.