September 4, 2001 - Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever

A week after my last release and twenty months since their debut album "How Strange, Innocence", Explosions in the Sky released their second album "Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever" on September 4, 2001. Explosions are still playing the same style of post-rock, let's see what their latest has to offer!

The album begins with "Greet Death" and after a quiet start they emerge nicely into a loud main riff with some nice loud drums by Chris Hrasky, some nice loud bass by Michael James and Mark Smith and Munaf Rayani playing some slow, but plenty loud and epic guitars. After a couple of minutes of loud jamming things fade into quiet once again as one guitarist plays some slow and epic stuff to lead the way and James backs him with some slow, solid bass. Hrasky and the other guitarist eventually join in and they nicely and slowly ramp things up for a moderately loud finish. A very typical(ly solid) Explosions song to kick us off! Up next is "Yasmin The Light" and after a cool quiet drum intro by Hrasky we hear two different guitar riffs that combine and mesh really well together for a smooth and silky riff. Then out of nowhere the speed and volume jumps dramatically for a cool new riff with some fast guitars and some great fast drumming by Hrasky. They quiet things down again and now there are three different guitar riffs, all simultaneously playing, but never getting in each other's way. They work together very smoothly to play a light but interesting riff that I don't find drags at all as they very slowly ramp up the volume until things are decently loud by the finish. A mostly quiet, but cool song. Track 3 is "The Moon Is Down" and it's got a quiet but epic and cool opening with one guitarist keeping the slow pace while another plays some very interesting and cool light guitar. There's no drums for several minutes and things are very quiet, but once Hrasky comes in things start to liven up a bit with a nice marching new riff. From here on out things sound pretty cool and they do a great job of coming in waves of quiet and then waves of louder parts as the music just seems to roll over you, like good post-rock should. They start to ramp things up even more for the last couple minutes with some louder guitars and some continued great drumming by Hrasky. A pretty cool 10 minute song! The next track is "Have You Passed Through This Night?" and it's the first Explosions song to have vocals! There's still no singing, but there is an opening speech overtop the light music. It sounds like a Southern, country voice slowly talking about a great evil in the world. The last line spoken is the name of the song and a space-y new guitar riff comes in afterwards and that is the only "vocals" EITS really ever use! From here they very slowly ramp things up and Hrasky plays some cool, epic drums. The guitars get louder and they do an excellent job of building things up to a very loud and cool riff. The last couple minutes are really great with everyone going pretty fast at this point and this is probably my favourite song on the album, really nicely done! The end leads right into track 5 "A Poor Man's Memory" and Hrasky plays a repetitive but catchy little drum beat to start us off and keep the pace. One guitar comes in at first, then a second, and then a third and they all combine for a light but interesting mix of guitars. This goes on for over four minutes, then one guitarist starts up a new faster riff and they very nicely explode into a loud and cool riff with Hrasky going absolutely nuts with some pretty wicked drums that are easily the highlight for me. I loved how they ended this one! The final song on the album is also the longest, the twelve minute "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept". It's got a loud opening, but the soon settle into a quiet riff with some nice light drums and three different guitar riffs simultaneously! Each one would be decent on their own, but the fact that they can combine three parts into a smooth riff makes things sound pretty cool. They continue to build off each other one riff at a time and by doing this they progressively and very smoothly segue between different riffs with one guitarist always going. Midway through things finally reach a full loud drum beat from Hrasky and some pretty cool and fast guitars as well! Then they return to near quiet with one guitarist playing a trippy droning riff while the others play some nice light stuff that takes us to the end of the song.

That is the end of "Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever" and I thought it was a pretty cool post-rock album! Explosions in the Sky are great at creating these epic soundscapes and I love how they blend their intricate slower parts with some cool louder parts. I think it's a definite improvement over "How Strange, Innocence" and I look forward to hearing more from these guys in the future!