All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone : Explosions In The Sky : Review : Rolling Stone

This Texas band plays instrumental music of huge ambition and swagger, built with a few simple ingredients: Mark Smith and Munaf Rayani's haiku-like guitar figures, spinning in stinging-treble tornadoes, then given altitude and volcanic attitude by drummer Chris Hrasky and bass guitarist Michael James. But there is no watch-me soloing. Explosions in the Sky (who made a feedback-rich splash in Hollywood with their 2004 score for the film Friday Night Lights) are like the Kronos Quartet with big amps and John Bonham in the back, exploring the composed details in their music before blowing 'em up. "It's Natural to Be Afraid," the near-quarter-hour centerpiece of the band's first studio album in two years, opens with the guitars in a double-helix dance anchored by a stern, repeated piano note while a bee swarm of distortion slowly overwhelms the mix. Later, Smith and Rayani emphasize the darkness in the song's title with galactic-folk sorrow, until Hrasky beats back the shadows with marching-snare dynamite. In this band, a real singer would just get in the way -- or get run over.