Explosions In The Sky
Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever

"Listen to this,” a friend of mine said, handing me a gray burnt CD without any title. It was "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" by Explosions In The Sky.
It was love at first listen.

After listening to that album to death (so to speak), I got my hands on the album I'm about to review here: "Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever."
The lengthy title belies the essentiality that characterizes this work. In fact, Explosions, among the many bands crowding the contemporary Post-Rock scene, do not lean towards electronic contaminations but instead exploit the potentials of the ultimate Rock instrument: the guitar.

The entire work is pervaded by an incredible emotional intensity, made even more poignant by rhythmic shifts that move from absolute calm to grating roars, the intersections of solos and arpeggios that never degenerate into empty technicalities transport the listener to an ethereal dimension only to then hurl them into dizzying progressions. A listening experience that gives no respite.
The six long tracks are little gems of contemporary music. But Explosions are not geniuses; they haven’t created a new genre like others, they are not music inventors. Their great merit lies in having taken from the bag of Rock elements previously never mixed so masterfully. In their compositions, Punk progressions alternate with Mogwai-like stases, martial drums overlap with sweet guitar reverberations…
The result is unique. Together with the strings of their guitars, Explosions make the strings of the soul vibrate.

It was said that after Rock the guitar had exhausted its role, that it had been exploited to the maximum, that there were no unexplored paths for this instrument. Listening to this album, it's pleasing to note that there are still those who can surprise by picking up a guitar.