diff --git a/bridge/go-llvm-diagnostics.cpp b/bridge/go-llvm-diagnostics.cpp
index d2c9825..bd51b70 100644
--- a/bridge/go-llvm-diagnostics.cpp
+++ b/bridge/go-llvm-diagnostics.cpp
@@ -103,3 +103,12 @@
   *open_qu = "'";
   *close_qu = "'";
 }
+
+void go_assert_fail(const char *expr, const char *filename,
+                    int line, const char *function)
+{
+  llvm::errs() << "llvm-goc: " << filename << ":" << line << ": "
+               << function << ": assertion '"
+               << expr << "' failed.\n";
+  abort();
+}
diff --git a/bridge/go-system.h b/bridge/go-system.h
index c7a8184..c802d76 100644
--- a/bridge/go-system.h
+++ b/bridge/go-system.h
@@ -41,10 +41,24 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
 
-#define go_assert assert
-
 #define _(x) x
 
+// In a previous version of this file, go_assert was simply #define'd to
+// 'assert', meaning that gofrontend assertions would be compiled away for
+// release builds, which was problematic. This version of go_assert applies for
+// all build flavors, meaning that we'll get assertion checking for release
+// builds. FWIW turning on assertions for all of LLVM can be very expensive from
+// a compile time perspective, but keeping the assertion checks in gofrontend
+// comes with more modest overhead.
+
+extern void go_assert_fail(const char *expr, const char *filename,
+                           int line, const char *function);
+
+#define go_assert(expr) \
+     (static_cast <bool> (expr)						\
+      ? void (0)							\
+      : go_assert_fail (#expr, __FILE__, __LINE__, __PRETTY_FUNCTION__))
+
 #include "llvm-includes.h"
 
 #define go_unreachable() llvm_unreachable("unreachable")