Album Review: Explosions In The Sky - The Wilderness

In the early to mid 2000s, Austin instrumentalists Explosions In The Sky opened eyes to a new wave of post rock bands with their commanding musical style and incredible musical cliffs built on soft-loud style of arrangements.

The Wilderness is a natural continuation from 2011's Take Care, Take Care, Take Care with the band further removing their use of heavy percussive lines, crashing cymbal plunges and sharp guitar constructs, instead developing in musical patience as tracks lift ever so slightly to build large and emotive musical movement on top of the quartets already stark performances.

Featuring a multitude of stammering electronic sounds set right from the title track, the record pushes preconceived expectations aside of what an Explosions In The Sky record should sound like — the soft-loud dynamic is still in place, but the band have taken their more recent experience with film scores to create an amazing and thought provoking narrative of nine free-flowing tracks as opposed to the largely episodic previous releases.

The flickering atmospheric echoes and strong piano-driven record may take some focus away from drummer and key member Chris Hrasky, but gives back a completely new layer for the band and what will be seen as a pivotal release in their catalogue.