THE EARTH IS NOT A COLD DEAD PLACE

Having heard a lot about this album in this site, what I got was a bit disappointing. I haven't listened to the other albums by Explosions In The Sky but I guess this is their best work up to date since it's by far higher rated than the others. Maybe having set high standards with bands like 'Godspeed You Black Emperor!', 'Mogwai' and 'Singur Ros' was also a reason for expecting more from this, but either way the disappointment remains.

'The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place' was released in 2003 and it's nothing new to the post- rock world. It's just a good album that follows the post-rock standards without adding anything new and thus I can't give more than 3 stars. Like 'mainstream' post-rock, what dominates are the guitars. They are mostly 'softer', playing depressing melodies but when it's needed they become aggressive creating walls of sound. As a result, the dynamics are something I find interesting but it's mostly either one or the other, meaning that it's not a gradual crescendo like for example Mogwai who slowly build the sound until the time you can't add more and then slowly come back. I seem to like more the album's softer parts. There are a few parts that are just amazing like in the first and last song while the others are mostly 'ok'. The more aggressive parts seem to me a bit forced and I really don't like the drums. They are surely not to be compared with Gybe's or Mogwail's but like Sean Trane says in his review this happens because they are only four.

Overall, it's a good album but there is nothing so special about this at all. It may be a good introduction to post-rock for someone but for a Gybe fan it's not more than an average album. That's only my opinion however. What may have happened is that it failed to captivate me for unknown reasons. It may be the album that someone will listen when having hard time in his life. Anyway, it didn't do that 'click' for me. You could try....