"Iceland"
> from Maybe We're Making God Sad and Lonely (Graveface; 2005)
>mp3

"Iceland" isn't the most Halloweenish Dreamend track we could be clearing for this update --- post-rock cliche/ghost story "In Her Little Bed We Lay Her," complete with old lady spoken word, would be the obvious choice --- but it is their newest record's best. After impressively working through a beautiful Explosions in the Sky-ish opener and that old lady song, the band, seemingly out of nowhere, pulls out a vocalist with a somber geek-rock tone. Suddenly they sound nothing at all like the Godspeed imitators you figured you'd be dealing with after hearing grannie tell a ghost story.

"Iceland" opens the album's stunning second side. It doesn't inch toward rock as close as "Can't Take You (Dif)"; it's about as high-tempo as Low, repeating its vocal coda ("I wake up yesterday / I wake up and you still had me waiting...") like ( ), except in english and kind of affecting, slowly backing its echoed, lulling melody with the regular "glacial" (apt title, at least) instrumentation: tons of hi-hat and restrained, atmospheric percussion and chiming guitars that create a bunch of build-and-climaxes. The Burning Paris were doing this sort of sad-sack melodic post-rock thing as well a few years ago with "In Ruins" (which I couldn't clear for download, but, you know, if you come across it...), but now they're, in keeping with the holiday spirit, "fucking dead."

The song's not even close to being "scary," really, but if you like the mp3 enough to pick up the album (less than ten bucks over at dreamend.com), the cover has a couple of skeletons/souls being held by our creator who looks sort of like Dubya and apparently wears a bowtie and bright orange suit. Plus it's on a label called "Graveface"! Creepy.

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