A healthy disdain for authority and a willingness to go against the grain has long been the modus operandi of Canadian mavericks Efrin Menuck, Sophie Trudeau and Thierry Amar. As members of mysterious outfit Godspeed You! Black Emperor this publicity shy collective have always adopted a resistance to the pressures of the media. Giving interviews only as a collective group and refusing many opportunities to promote themselves their whole career has been delivered on their own terms.

Thee Sliver Mount Zion, whither it be with the Memorial Orchestra or Tra La La Band suffixes, have followed a similar non conformist ethos yet their orchestral folk punk has always been far more anthemic and direct than GYBE’s clandestine, nocturnal emissions. This seventh record bursts out of the starting blocks in a very Sliver Mount… fashion, with a big group vocal over a tense back-beat and angular discordant guitars and strings. The child’s voice that introduces Fuck Off… (Constellation Records) turns out to be a harbinger of things to come with many vocal lines effectively simplistic. The underlying theme here seems to be the question of what sort of a world will be future generations inherit.

The cathartic journey of ‘Austerity Blues’ sees Menuck howling in desperation “Let my son, live long enough, to see the mountain torn down” knowing that such events will never occur before he himself shuffles off this mortal coil.

The apocalyptic tone of much of the lyrics is tempered by moments of wistful well wishing juxtaposed with utter anguish. The Trudeau sung ‘Little Ones’ Run’ is a sinister lullaby which would not have felt out of place during one of the flashback childhood scenes in the recent adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s distopian epic ‘The Road’. Likewise ‘Take Away These Early Grave Blues’ contains the sarcastic put down “Let them sing or pretty songs” full of sneering punk vitriol.

Menuck can rest assured his anti establishment brand of rebellion will indeed be heard for many years to come. For all its warnings of a crueller world to come such invention, complexity and an unquenchable thirst for challenging the ideals of self appointed judges will leave a compelling legacy for this trailblazing act

8/10

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Ross Baker