Review by Allan on March 28, 2003.

For a handful of music fans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the instrumental collective from Canada, has become synonymous with quality, beauty, avant-garde, and other likeminded, positive terms. Sure, Godspeed has its fair share of naysayers, but my experience has been that people either love Godspeed or loathe them. For those of us that do love them, we'll just move on and appreciate each album for what it is. "F# A# Infinity" is Godspeed's debut album, and while not the most amazing album by Godspeed, it was an important album, seeing as it laid out the groundwork for what Godspeed would become, and it has some excellent traits.

The best thing that Godspeed had to offer on "F# A# Infinity" was a bunch of good ideas. Most of those ideas were absolutely beautiful, and that's what makes "F# A# Infinity" enjoyable. That includes all the instruments – violin, guitar, drums, effects, and a handful of other band instruments. Such a wide array of instruments gives Godspeed the upper hand when it comes to creating their atmosphere or mood, or how they go about it.

What Godspeed is all about is creating this musical landscape of emotion and atmosphere, and they go about it by creating these lengthy instrumental pieces that start with little or next to nothing and begin to blossom, until they reach their full potential. The first song, 'Dead Flag Blues,' has many beautiful moments (and it also introduces Godspeed's use of samples to set a tone for their pieces) and for that, it's a good piece, but it really fails to do that essential blossoming. The following song, 'East Hastings,' does a much better job of this. The mid section of this song can be quite staggering if you're in the right mood, but it's always a good (if not great) listen. The closing song, 'Providence,' and particularly it's excellent second movement 'Dead Metheny...,' is fantastic as well with it's excellent use of multiple instruments, including horns, xylophones, cellos, and others.

The biggest problem with "F# A# Infinity" is that Godspeed isn't always effective in their build-ups, and that in each of the individual songs, many of the movements don't flow into each other. Many of them could easily be split up into separate tracks. This is a small quibble, however. A bigger one is that "F# A# Infinity" can be a little bit rocky in transitions sometimes.

Bottom Line: This was just the beginning for Godspeed, and yet even with its minor flaws, it's still an awesome album. For anybody interested in instrumental post-rock on avant-garde side, starting here would be a good choice if getting acquainted with Godspeed.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 8
Originality: 9
Overall: 8

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Review by Adam M on February 28, 2018.

Usurpress performs a mishmash of genres to excellent effect. There is a decidedly Swedish death flavor to the songs, but the variety of styles makes this more interesting than your standard effort from that genre. There are moments where the music slows down and takes a more atmospheric vibe which are nice and add variety to the mix. Surely the variation is a nice element that gives the band a great deal of credibility.

They are able to rock out when necessary, but make sure that the album has a changeable mood to it. The Swedish death portions themselves are strong and surpass the old Entomed comparison time and time again. This leads to a very compelling listen. There is a post aspect to the band brought on by noisy elements seen specifically in the highlight In Boos Without Pages.  Otherwise, black metal and other genres like gothic metal seep into the mix and bring this album to a more greatly elevated level.  The effect of the variation is delightful and poignant, but the album still isn’t perfect. Some parts of the mix bog down the overall sound of the band and lead to a slight bit of inconsistency such as the latter portions of Late in the 11^th Hour. The experimentation doesn’t always work, but it leads to a freshness that is a complete wonder.

This is an album that many different metal lovers will enjoy and it only requires a moderate effort to create an effective listening experience from the listener. This is an experience that needs to be heard in its entirety to fully appreciate. Those interested in Swedish death will be the most likely to like the material here, but there is so much diversity that fans of a number of genres will find something to cling to. Usurpress have crafted a truly interesting release with Interregnum.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10