The End of Dying

5. Foxhole - The End of Dying
Until a few years ago, the phrase “Christian rock” was a real mood-killer, conjuring images of artists too bland or backwards to make it in the mainstream. So the idea that a Christian instrumental group who based their songs on the Bible and C.S. Lewis could be better and more progressive than their contemporaries was simply unfathomable – that is, until Foxhole’s tenderly handmade release, We the Wintering Tree, saw, and brought, the light. Was it the instinctive, roll-dominated percussion that helped this song to stick in the memory? The speaker-to-speaker guitar interplay? The multiple instrumental choruses? Or the way the lonely, lovely trumpets entered at 2:30, when we thought we already knew the track? The answer is: all of the above. With this track and album, Foxhole caused us to rethink our assumptions not only about Christian rock, but about the entire post-rock movement. (Richard Allen)