Track Listing

1. Greet Death
2. Yasmin The Light
3. Moon Is Down
4. Have You Passed Through The Night
5. Poor Man's Memory
6. With Tired Eyes Tired Minds Tired Souls We Slept

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6261 in Music
• Released on: 2008-11-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
Explosions in the Sky's 2001 release offers a plethora of musical colours and fascinating detours. All six lengthy tracks are centred on moody guitar, bass, and drum textures. Theresult is a mix of subtle, organic tones and raucous, sometimes heavily amplified effects.
Overall, the music on THOSE WHO TELL THE TRUTH SHALL DIE, THOSE WHO TELL THE TRUTH SHALL LIVE FOREVER is as complex, long-winded, and obtuse as the title itself. However, the sonic landscape created by this eclectic quartet is also warm and inviting. The simple catch phrase for this style of music is emo-rock, which is an abbreviation for emotional rock. Like this style implies, these compositions are expressive and intense. Whether it is the screaming guitars of "Greet Death" or the brooding "The Moon is Down", this CD writhes with great musical transparency. The finest selection on this release may be the last track, "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept". On this piece, the band uses a cornucopia of dense guitar sounds, a relentless military drum cadence, and dark chords that loop ominously.

Customer Reviews

Soundtrack to the Apocalypse
You should never judge a book by it's cover: a CD, on the other hand, you should, at least if this Texas quartet are anything to go by. The mood of 'Those who tell the truth...' is perfectly summed up by the cover art - based on the story of the appearance of the Angel of Mons, complete with soldiers silhouetted against a wartime sky.

Make no mistake, this is war music: not militant but redolent of the drama and tragedy of war. This could be the sanitised soundtrack to the reality of human conflict. Powerful, darkly melodic guitars alternate between picking out lyrical, deceptively peaceful lines and letting loose with huge, brief crescendos. In each of these six songs can be found the calm before the storm, the storm itself, and the shell-shocked lull that follows. The drums especially make full use of military cadences and rythms in the build-ups to occassional cadenzas.

Although I came to this album through listening to Godspeed, Explosions in the Sky are not really 'post-' anything, except in mood, and use basic rock techniques to superb effect. There is nothing groundbreaking in terms of style or content and - besides a monologue at the beginning of 'Have You Passed Through This Night?' lamenting 'this great evil'- there is no found sound or tape effects. Listeners looking for something different, experimental or new will be disappointed. But as instrumental rock albums with apocalyptic overtones goes there are few comparisons. If Godspeed portay a post-apocalyptic soundscape than Explosions in the Sky recount the apocalypse itself. The music is very sad and at times epic, but amidst all the drums and guitars are the beautiful and fragile melody lines, magnified by the context in which they're found.

BREATHTAKING
I just want to reiterate what has been said about this record above - it is staggeringly beautiful. Yes, it it an instrumental rock record but relies solely on guitars and drums (so avoiding any real GYBE! similarities). This is perhaps the best "Post Rock" (for want of a better word) made since Slint's 'Spiderland'. Oh, and if you ever get the chance - see them live - the experience is amazing!

beauty in dynamics
everyone should own this record. it is simply breathtaking. not just anther one of those instrumental, loud/soft bands, explosions in the sky redefine the whole genre. the use of dynamics, and brilliant percussion sections make this a truly beautiful record. in particular, i am in love with 'yasmin the light' (ignore the amazon tracklisting, its wrong, choose 'die') and how its changes from this melancholy slow, sombre-mooded instrumental, to a ravenous, highly-charged, drum infested magnum opus, mkaing me want to cry. other stand-out tracks are 'have you passed through this night?', and the opener 'greet death'.. buy it!