Much like their hometown of Montreal—a city built beneath the natural behemoth that lends the place its name and much of its identity—Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra seem to thrive in shadows. It’s an idiosyncrasy that’s followed the band ever since their 1999 beginnings as an offshoot of legendary post-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Led by Efrim Menuck (who started the band as an outlet to explore and improve his sight reading and music notation abilities) and featuring fellow Godspeed members Sophie Trudeau and Thierry Amar, Silver Mt. Zion have been frequently labelled as a side project of their more prolific label mates. It’s a shadow that they’ve thrived in—their output has been more consistent and arguably stronger than Godspeed’s—though I can’t help but wonder if it’s held them back as well.

While Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything—the seventh and possibly best album of Silver Mt. Zion’s decade-spanning career—doesn’t remove them very far from the imagined presence of their forebearers, it still feels more singular, more hopeful and more them than any other record in their catalog. The album itself is littered with dark overtones—motifs of death and loss are weaved among their trademark builds and freak outs—but through this thick thematic fog, Menuck and the four musicians that flank him craft an inspiring, widescreen homage to creativity and new beginnings.

Like previous Silver Mt. Zion records, Fuck Off Get Free contains its fair share of literal references to Menuck’s current muses and haunts; the record opens on an optimistic note with Menuck and violinist Jessica Moss’ child Ezra: “We live in an island called Montreal and we make a lot of noise because we love each other.” On “Austerity Blues,” a wish for a better future turns into a typically Mt. Zion-esque chant: “Lord, let my son live long enough to see that mountain torn down.” Menuck’s view of youth isn’t entirely optimistic, however; the band later mourns the loss of the New York rapper who took his own life at 21 on “Rains Thru the Roof at Thee Grande Ballroom (For Capital Steez).” It’s an interesting dichotomy in which to sit for both the band and a listener; between the hope and the despair, there is a palpable sense that Menuck is starting to actualize himself within the situations that he antagonizes. Ideas like mortality and decay—once faceless creatures fought and explored with abandon—now feel accepted as inevitable and totally, unavoidably real.

It’s that feeling that makes this album both one of the most affecting and most universal statements to have come from Silver Mt. Zion to date. Though Fuck Off Get Free may be peppered with personal references, such allusions are oblique and infrequent enough that the record retains a unique, impressionistic quality. The mountain mentioned in “Austerity Blues” is the kind of mental block that I—and surely many others—grapple with constantly, an instantly recognizable figure of oppression. Equally undeniable is the cathartic power of the accompanying arrangements; this is big, bold music, the kind that says as much with every crescendo as it does with lyrical acuity. Fuck Off Get Free’s greatest achievement, however—above all of its thematic ideas and musical bombast—is its generosity. It feels like making this record was a moving experience for the five musicians that currently make up Silver Mt. Zion; thankfully, that power is immediately translated to any listener willing to give this album their time and attention.

Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything is available now via Constellation Records.