Silver Mount Zion is a side project from Godspeed You Black Emperor! consisting of mostly of piano and strings. Essentially, this lineup is a stripped-down GYBE, but in my opinion has something a bit more to offer.


No one will mistake GYBE for being too positive. ASMZ carries on in the same vein of instrumental gloom and doom as its predecessor, but with much more emphasis on the gloom. This music is sad - intensely so. In this way, ASMZ accomplishes more than GYBE with less. Often, the emotion behind GYBE is lost behind the furious bluster of guitars and drums. ASMZ masters a subtler approach, stripping away most of the rock elements of the band. Guitars are completely absent, as well as drums, save for one track. Long apocalyptic vocal samples are also kept to one song. Staying with the stripped-down vein, songs are actually song-length -- don't look for 25-minute epics here. Instead of whirling maelstroms of noise, each song can be dissected into its parts and easily digested.


Furthermore, the parts of the songs resonate with beauty and emotion. Strings practically drip with melancholy, while a piano trudges out chord after chord. This creates an excellent juxtaposition between the slightly askew rhythm of the piano and the gathering intensity of the higher end strings - it's as if each song is trying to rage against the dying of the light, as it were. This is particularly evident in the last song, "For Wanda." As tiny fireworks whistle in the background, piano chords and strings gently fade in and gather in intensity. A slight electronic rumble lurks in the background, almost threatening the melody with eventual demise. But instead, the entire song fades away, and a tiny beautiful organ plays a soft pattern for the last minute of the song before it too dies away. I get the sense that each song is in essence a bottle rocket -- beginning from a spark, proceeding with much beauty and gusto, but eventually fading out in a sad whistle -- a trucated lifespan, but a beautiful and worthy one.