After a nine-year hiatus, Montreal’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor returns with another wordless epic that still manages to speak anti-establishment volumes. Apocalyptic in scope and sentiment, ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (Constellation Records) adds fire and brimstone to the band’s forceful post-rock. The twenty-minute tracks “Mladic” and “We Drift Like Worried Fire” become unnerving as unusual instruments (only Godspeed could make a dulcimer sound punk) and droning guitars create a quiet riot. ‘Allelujah! sounds like a film score for the end of days, in which human politics and natural disasters play an equal hand in worldwide destruction.

Rihanna defies both the press and her fans on Unapologetic (Def Jam Recordings). Whether she’s dueting with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown on the grossly gleeful “Nobody’s Business” or mining Brown’s infamous assault on the trippy, Caribbean-tinged “Numb,” the pop star has never been more coldly calculating. Though there ...