Explosions in the Sky - Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever
(Temporary Residence)

With the band's size, pageantry, and doom and gloom tone, this clearly puts them in the same territory of post-p-rock as Godspeed You Black Emperor!, but that is not intended to label them as some sort of style hound. Explosions in the Sky are much too earnest for that, and the evidence is in the music. It is not an emotionless carbon copy; it is cinematic and evocative, like a dusty old film reel showing a pure, unaffected glimpse of moments in time, whether its tales of sorrow against an open sky or tragic moments of not-so-quiet desperation.

Much like Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Explosions in the Sky claim their music comes not from scholarly knowledge of how to orchestrate and compose but rather from the punk rock ethos of three chords and the truth. Explosions in the Sky even go so far as to say they don't know keys, they just know images, colors, and moods. And that they most certainly do know. The band also expresses these moods in a slightly different manner than their post-rock brethren, preferring, as the band's name implies, the explosion over the build. Explosions in the Sky's music does not slowly and gradually overtake you, but rather lulls you into a false sense of security before unleashing in massive volumes, or, as the band's label puts it, "total silence to total violence."

The parts of total silence are so quiet they can even go by unnoticed. "Yasmin the Light" even emulates a heartbeat with the bass drum, sounding like a lullaby delivered to a baby being rocked to sleep. The guitars are actually quite beautiful, quietly playing off each other to create a Bedhead-style lullaby that constantly hints at getting louder and heavier but never lets that sleeping baby wake. "Have You Passed Through This Night?" also starts quietly, being reluctant to intrude, sampling dialog from a movie about the origins of evil and its roots in every man as the instruments create the backdrop of a campfire against the wide-open Texas sky. The mood of this song soon gets much more ominous, though, abruptly unleashing two fits of abrasive, crunching guitar.

It is these explosions that make Explosions in the Sky's music so powerful. They're the first things the listener notices when listening to the music, and they're the parts one continues to wait for when the rest of the album's less readily noticeable beauty starts to unfold. The album's first track, "Greet Death," starts with 50 seconds of a simple fluctuating tone before the band stomps its foot down with unexpected force, launching into a massive riff. It is this moment that hooks you; quietly waiting for the music to develop, it doesn't even bother with those formalities, instead bursting out into a heavy guitar phrase worthy of metal-style head bobbing. The way the band captures these moments of "silence to violence" and back again, working several such jumps into many of their songs, makes this music seem epic and alive.

Built from only four members using only the standard guitar, bass, and drums, Explosions in the Sky realize that the amp alone can allow even a small band to overpower an entire orchestra of strings. They use this power not to slowly take over your mind but to explode suddenly, dramatically, and violently. The impact of this can be that much more potent to the listener, not depending on the mind to figure out what is happening but rather simply allowing the senses to feel what is changing or, rather, what has changed. It's a simple tweak to Godspeed You Black Emperor's same old same old, but with the sincerity and vitality that Explosions in the Sky approach their music, the next round of bands may just see this type of explosion as the new build.

jim steed 2001 sep 14