November 4, 2003 - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

A day after my last release and two years since "Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever", Explosions in the Sky released their third album "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" on November 4, 2003. Explosions are still playing post-rock and like their last album there are lots (all really) of long songs, with the shortest song being over eight minutes still! Let's check out the latest from these Texas soft rockers!

The album begins with "First Breath After Coma" and it starts with an echoing, pinging guitar riff that turns into a kind-of trippy and cool background riff. Chris Hrasky plays some slow, epic drums to match the mood, and the other guitarist (either Munaf Rayani or Mark Smith) adds a pretty epic riff of his own. This all combines for a very space-y and typical Explosions sound and as the volume increases things sound even better with some nice loud drums. Things quiet down again after about four and a half minutes as some droning guitars keep the pace while Michael James plays some simple but effective bass. Hrasky's sleigh bells fit the mood pretty nicely and his drums continue to determine the loudness and epicness of the riff as I love his loud fills. The latter half of the song is less exciting, but still decent and the end of it actually leads right into another 10 minute track "The Only Moment We Were Alone". One guitarist keeps the pace with a repetitive riff, Hrasky adds some epic drums to the background, then the other guitarist enters with a cool light lead guitar riff while James provides some more simple but effective bass. They stop and get very quiet before nicely slamming into a loud new riff with some cool drums and two more cool guitar riffs nicely playing off each other. They alternate between these two main riffs pretty nicely for a bit, then James switches from bass to a third guitar and then things start to sound pretty cool as all three guitarists play at the same time, but they somehow make all their different riffs combine for a harmonic and smooth riff. This goes on for several minutes and it all sounds pretty good, including of course some solid drums by Hrasky. Things eventually build very nicely until we get dropped off a cliff with just one guitar playing now as he takes us in a new direction. This becomes the backbone for another building session as the other guitar and bass join in and Hrasky plays some pretty awesome drums once they slam into quite the headbanger of a new riff! The final two minutes are really cool indeed and I love the roller coaster of this ten minute song, Explosions at their best! Track 3 is "Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean" and one guitarist leads the way with a nice soft riff, then two more guitar riffs join the mix as all three are mixing nicely together once again. The first riff keeps the pace, another adds some light, trippy backdrop while the third provides some cool offbeat stuff and it all combines for a smooth and solid, typical riff, especially once Hrasky finally joins in on drums. Around four minutes in things die down to a near silence, then a new light guitar riff takes us on a different path, which leads very smoothly into a faster, pretty cool new guitar riff. The first guitar compliments this new riff very nicely and then the third guitar completes another very cool mix of light guitars. There's no real loud part to this near nine minute song, but it's progressiveness is very well done and it's smooth and solid the whole way through. Each track continues to flow into the next one with "Memorial" and the same slow, droning guitars continue for almost a minute to open this song. James finally enters with some solid soft bass, then the other guitarist starts to play a slow epic riff overtop of the trippy backdrop. Hrasky doesn't join in until after three and a half minutes in, but he instantly makes things better with some solid drums. After a bit of louder jamming they segue nicely into a new riff with one loud lead guitar sounding pretty good and the rhythm section sounding solid as well. The last minute and a half they really crank it up with some loud, headbanging guitars and some great faster drums by Hrasky and this is a pretty sweet and epic finale to another solid instrumental song. The final song on the album is "Your Hand In Mine" and Rayani and Smith combine perfectly as one guitarist leads the way while the other compliments with a simple rhythm riff. Hrasky eventually adds a nice soft drum beat to match the mood and once again when the third guitar enters the fold it's easy to get lost in the sea of light guitars washing all around, different riffs crashing into one another seamlessly. They use quiet and loud to keep the epicness high at all times and everything is very smooth and cool with words not doing proper justice to all the light, space-y guitars.

That is the end of "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" and I thought it was another pretty solid post-rock album by Explosions in the Sky. As usual, I love the louder parts, which sound great as usual, but there was a lack of them at times, not to say the music wasn't still good. I think it's easily better than their debut "How Strange, Innocence" but I don't think it surpasses their last album "Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever" so 2nd place will have to do. Keep it coming guys!