#explosionsinthesky — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #explosionsinthesky, aggregated by home.social.
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Vandampire – Hope Scars Review
By Spicie Forrest
Post- historically implies an evolution of or successor to a previous idea (modernism, rock, structuralism, punk, hardcore, colonialism, etc.). While a little nebulous, post-metal more or less riffs on the post-rock blueprint. It utilizes metal’s intense, abrasive instrumentation to create an emotional vulnerability that even the best power ballads fail to capture. There is a tenderness in its crushing weight, a sense of freedom and catharsis in its restraint. It is this corner of the metalverse that South West England-based Vandampire inhabits. Founded in 2018 and with two EPs1 under their belt, Hope Scars not only marks Vandampire’s debut full-length, but the official debut of their second guitarist, as well. Post-metal is a saturated field, though, and it’ll take a lot for Hope Scars to stand out in the crowd.
One thing I can say for certain is that Hope Scars stands head and shoulders above Vandampire’s previous EPs. Past releases certainly contained all the elements on display here, but Hope Scars sees Vandampire mixing those sounds in elegant fashion. Where once sludge and post-metal stood apart or minimally integrated, here they are inseparable, a cohesive whole. Crushing, abrasive guitars (Joseph Siddons, Matthew Billingham) dance and thrash over basslines (Michael Edmonds) three c’s thiccc. Drummer Mark Litchfield, rather than simply keeping time, enunciates and elevates his bandmates’ performances. The result is tonally sludgy, like Kowloon Walled City, but softened by the patient, thorough sensibilities of post-metal songcraft. In keeping with this description, Billingham utilizes hardcore shouts and screams, but is smartly pushed back in the mix, so his vocals feel more like an instrument than a focal point. His delivery occasionally fails to capitalize on Hope Scars’ more emotive landscape, but it’s generally well-suited to the style. The Vandampire of Hope Scars is unmistakably the Vandampire of early EPs, but the maturity and nuance on display here is astonishing by comparison.
As noted in their promo material, Vandampire’s core weapon is The Riff™, and Siddons and Billingham wield it well. They oscillate between stone and sludge with surprising dexterity, riffs effortlessly flowing from one to the next (“Ultralow,” “A Promise”). Vaunted lead guitars soar over a dense rhythm section (“Hope Scars,” “Let Ruin End Here”), reminding me of Explosions in the Sky and the erhu played on Deadly Carnage’s Endless Blue. Those leads are my favorite thing on the album, searingly bright amidst the sludge. Siddons and Billingham, in concert with Edmonds’ teeth-rattling bass and Litchfield’s lively and energetic drums, weave a spell both heavy and heartfelt, hopeful and tragic. Like a metal Mogwai, Vandampire ties your feet to a sinking anchor but always makes sure you can see light on the surface.
Vandampire’s evolved style on Hope Scars fails to avoid the bloated and poorly paced pitfalls of the genre. Hope Scars’ two interludes break the album into three digestible parts, but ultimately prove frustrating. “In Ascension” builds beautifully in the back half, but fades out and misses the opportunity to lead into “Eaves.” I enjoyed the Americana tone of “I Will Miss Everything I Forget,” but this is also a standalone, and at three minutes each, these interludes linger entirely too long for what they are. The biggest bloatual offenders, however, are “Eaves” and “Let Ruin End Here.” The former fades out halfway through its five-minute runtime, leaving me with ambient noises and muffled conversation that suggest they just…forgot to turn off the mic. The latter begins to wind down a full three minutes before the end of its 12-minute runtime and concludes with 80 seconds of bird sounds. All told, Hope Scars could stand to lose at least ten minutes.
Vandampire’s vast improvement over previous efforts and an instrumental section that’s absolutely locked in make for good, engaging music. There’s a lot of great playlist fodder on here, but playlist fodder doesn’t make a great album. Roughly a quarter of Hope Scars is fluff, and while some of it—the interludes—could have been better utilized, at least half of it just wastes time. Vandampire has come a long way since they started in 2018, and if Hope Scars proves anything, it’s that they have the chops to go much further. I’ll just have to wait until next time to see if they get there.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Ripcord Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: October 31st, 2025#25 #2025 #deadlyCarnage #englishMetal #explosionsInTheSky #hopeScars #kowloonWalledCity #mogwai #oct25 #postMetal #review #reviews #ripcordRecords #sludgeMetal #vandampire
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Third #video in my #series of #top5 #songs that belong on your #playlist. Older video as trying to get moved over to #vimeo . This weeks list theme is #postrock w/ music from #mogwai #godisanastronaut #monkey3 #russiancircles and #explosionsinthesky
please feel free to #boost
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Third #video in my #series of #top5 #songs that belong on your #playlist. Older video as trying to get moved over to #vimeo . This weeks list theme is #postrock w/ music from #mogwai #godisanastronaut #monkey3 #russiancircles and #explosionsinthesky
please feel free to #boost
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Third #video in my #series of #top5 #songs that belong on your #playlist. Older video as trying to get moved over to #vimeo . This weeks list theme is #postrock w/ music from #mogwai #godisanastronaut #monkey3 #russiancircles and #explosionsinthesky
please feel free to #boost
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Third #video in my #series of #top5 #songs that belong on your #playlist. Older video as trying to get moved over to #vimeo . This weeks list theme is #postrock w/ music from #mogwai #godisanastronaut #monkey3 #russiancircles and #explosionsinthesky
please feel free to #boost
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Third #video in my #series of #top5 #songs that belong on your #playlist. Older video as trying to get moved over to #vimeo . This weeks list theme is #postrock w/ music from #mogwai #godisanastronaut #monkey3 #russiancircles and #explosionsinthesky
please feel free to #boost
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All right, y’all know the drill by now. Continuing our (kinda sorta) Prince-themed 6 Degrees series, connecting albums from The List and carrying on from where we left off last time. This is essentially a guest post as avi_miller provided the connections for the last four albums in this set, so a big thank you to them!
6 Degrees of Separation: Daniel Lanois to Rainbow
Harold Budd / Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois – The Pearl (list number 268)
>> Explosions In The Sky (who ended Part 4) were on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Friday Night Lights, as was Daniel Lanois. On this album (plus others), Lanois collaborated with Brian Eno, who is on…Robert Fripp – Exposure (971)
…this album by Robert Fripp, who was in…King Crimson – Red (568)
…King Crimson. The line-up at the time of this album included Bill Bruford on drums/percussion, who had previously been the drummer for…Yes – Fragile (527)
…Yes. This album was recorded at Advision Studios, where part of…Kate Bush – The Dreaming (576)
…this album by Kate Bush was also recorded. This album features Jimmy Bain on bass guitar, who also played bass on…Rainbow – Rainbow Rising (57)
this album by Rainbow. <<Prince 6
Some fun connections between this group of artists and The Purple One. Let me know in the comments if you know of any others!
- In 1990, Prince invited Kate Bush to meet him after a show, and they decided to collaborate. The two couldn’t again get in the same room, so “Why Should I Love You?” (released on Bush’s 1993 album The Red Shoes) took 2 years to create (or, rather, construct, then deconstruct, then reconstruct…) by sending tapes back and forth.
- Kate Bush does backing vocals on Prince’s “My Computer“, from his 1996 album, Emancipation.
- The soundtrack to the 1995 film Showgirls features two Prince songs (The Gold Experience‘s “319” and Crystal Ball‘s “Ripopgodezippa”) as well as David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans”, which was co-written by Brian Eno.
- Both Prince’s Purple Rain and Brian Eno’s Another Green World have inspired custom perfumes made by dublab that are supposedly meant to, umm, smell like them (like the albums, not the musicians).
- Both Prince and Ritchie Blackmore, guitarist and leader of the band Rainbow, are known as two of the greatest guitarists of all time, and both loved to break out lengthy but spectacular solos. On Rolling Stone‘s 2023 list of the top 250 guitarists, Prince ranked at number 14, and Blackmore at 75. (There are actually a ton of artists from The List on Rolling Stone‘s list, because we have great taste.)
- Prince and Ronnie James Dio (the singer for Rainbow at the time of the Rainbow Rising album) both packed an enormous amount of talent in a smaller frame – the two were nearly the same height (with or without their fabulous high heels). (And speaking of fashion, some of Dio’s stage outfits wouldn’t look too out of place on Prince, and vice versa.)
Tune in on Friday for Part 6, to see how we get from Rainbow to Madhouse!
https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/17/6-degrees-of-separation-part-5/
#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #BillBruford #BrianEno #DanielLanois #DavidBowie #ExplosionsInTheSky #HaroldBudd #JimmyBain #KateBush #KingCrimson #Prince #Rainbow #RitchieBlackmore #RobertFripp #RonnieJamesDio #Yes
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Today is the halfway point of our current 6 Degrees series, connecting albums from The List. And, again, because we’re doing a bit of a Prince-theme, we’ll be picking out some fun Prince-connections in/below the set.
Okay, carrying on from where we left off last time…
6 Degrees of Separation: Bruce Dickinson to Explosions In The Sky
Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding (list number 509)
>> As noted in our feature on Tagaq’s album (which ended Part 3), she’s keen to someday cover Iron Maiden, whose frontman is Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson’s solo album contains both lyrics and artwork by the 18th/19th century English poet and painter William Blake…Prince – For You (623)
…who the writer John Higgs delightfully compares at length to Prince in his piece in The Quietus called “Visionaries Across Time: The Shared Magic of Prince & William Blake“. …Iggy And The Stooges – Raw Power (814)
…William Blake also pops up in Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 film Dead Man, as the main character, also named William Blake, may or may not be the reincarnation of the English poet. Dead Man features a cameo by Iggy Pop, who is regarded as the “godfather of punk”. …Minor Threat – Minor Threat (609)
…And, if anyone could similarly be called the “godfather of hardcore” (or could command as much devotion from Henry Rollins), that would be Ian MacKaye, of Minor Threat and…Fugazi – Repeater (422)
…Fugazi, whose tour for The Argument album featured the post-rock greats…Explosions In The Sky – Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever (73)
Explosions In The Sky. <<Prince 6(ish)
This group of artists are a bit far removed from The Purple One, so the connections are tough for this set. Let me know in the comments if you know of any other connections!
- Iron Maiden and Prince both had a rigorous release schedule in the 80s and early 90s, with both releasing an album (and a hit album, at that) nearly every year. E.g., Iron Maiden’s 1st self-titled album came out the same year as Prince’s Dirty Mind (1980), as did Killers and Controversy (1981), The Number of the Beast and 1999 (1982), Powerslave and Purple Rain (1984), etc. (Prince didn’t have an 1983 album to match Maiden’s Piece of Mind, likely due to working on the Purple Rain film/album.) ((I feel like there should be an accompanying string of surveys on Mastodon asking people to pick their favorites from the above pairs…))
- The Swedish author and professor Per Nilsen has written music biographies on Prince as well as Iggy Pop and the Stooges (and David Bowie).
- While there’s no direct connection between Minor Threat and Prince, I found this Flavorwire article interesting that links the American hardcore scene with Prince by way of fellow-Minneapolis band Hüsker Dü (who is on The List, and who was signed to SST Records, the label of Greg Ginn of Black Flag, who Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye’s bff, was the vocalist of from 1981 to 1985). Essentially, the author argues that location tied Prince and Hüsker Dü (as well as The Replacements) together just like Seattle, Detroit, and Memphis did for the bands that came from those cities:
- “Trying to separate the success of Prince and The Revolution from the impact the music of The Replacements and Hüsker Dü would go on to have smacks of punk rock elitism, and is almost like somebody saying that Nirvana shouldn’t count as part of the now-legendary Seattle scene simply because they got too big… Prince…and his lasting impact on his hometown’s music scene are just as vital as the influence attributed to a couple of punk bands he has probably never even listened to.”
- Fugazi’s Repeater came out the same year as Prince’s Graffiti Bridge (1990).
- Explosions In The Sky’s Those Who Tell the Truth… came out just a couple months before Prince’s Rainbow Children (2001), just a week prior to 9/11. Explosions In The Sky had some hub-bub around their album since the artwork had an airplane with the caption “This plane will crash tomorrow”, including one of the band members being detained by airport security. I wonder if the reception of Prince’s album would’ve been different if it wasn’t released during this time, as it seems that Rainbow Children is one of those that gets missed. ((Indeed, it should be on The List – I would add it myself, but I’ve cut myself off – somebody else want to submit it???))
- Prince died on Iggy Pop’s 69th birthday.
Tune in on Wednesday for Part 5, to see how we get from Explosions in the Sky to Rainbow! And in the meantime, tomorrow we will have a regular spotlight that provides a bit of a spoiler to Part 5…
https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/15/6-degrees-of-separation-part-4/
#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #BruceDickinson #ExplosionsInTheSky #Fugazi #HuskerDu #IanMacKaye #IggyPop #IronMaiden #MinorThreat #PerNilsen #Prince #Tagaq #TheStooges #WilliamBlake
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One of my favorite pieces of music ever.
If you ever have the chance to see them live, run to them.
(lyrics are quotes from the Thin Red Line)
https://youtu.be/fPdcWom3DXU?si=MiNNo8kX1pLCwuKK
#Music #ExplosionsInTheSky #TheThinRedLine -
Explosions in the sky, à l'épicerie moderne, Feyzin.
Encore un très bon moment et bien réglé au niveau du son.
Mais que se passe-t-il ? Les ingés son acceptent de ne plus pousser les potards à fond? Ont-ils d'autres directives de la salle? (Respect du décret ?)
Mais franchement, c'est bien agréable!
🤘👌👍
#concert #lÉpicerieModerne #feyzin
#explosionsInTheSky -
This #NewMusicFriday is a good one, check it out:
#WarOfBeing by #Tessearct - https://songwhip.com/tesseract/war-of-being
#Stone by #Baroness - https://songwhip.com/baroness/stone2023
#End by #ExplosionsInTheSky - https://songwhip.com/explosions-in-the-sky/end
Also new #ThirtySecondsToMars but it's horrible. No worries though, I can listen to #ABeautifulLie whenever I want. 🤗
The other three records mentioned are very nice, especially the Baroness record surprised me!