Skip to main content

IN REVIEW: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - "IX"


One has to wonder if Conrad Keely sleeps. As an avid writer in addition to his role as primary songwriter, frontman and artwork creator for ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, the only thing more astounding than his creativity is his prolificness; IX is (rather obviously) Trail Of Dead's ninth album, but also the fourth in five years.

In fact, while some artists receive criticism along the course of their careers for a perceived shortage of ideas, Trail Of Dead have been targeted more often than not for having too many. The band's lofty aspirations may have gotten the better of them a couple times along the way, but in recent years they've settled into a comfortable groove. However, ever averse to settling, they boiled their sound down to its furious essence on 2012's Lost Songs.

That album scaled back the group's more cinematic impulses and placed heavy emphasis on high energy and concise attack, and IX starts out with the same focus. The percussive, punchy first half practically speeds by in only twenty minutes while keeping the tunes tight, captivating and in some cases (like the slow burning single The Ghost Within and the elastic groove of Jaded Apostles) downright catchy. It's also an incredible show of restraint; a few of these songs would have once been a compromise at twice the length, but years of experience have revealed a measure of maturity that they perhaps would have been too stubborn to acknowledge a decade ago.

As compact as the first six songs are, the album's second half goes big, acting in defiant contrast. Instrumental How To Avoid Big Ships swells with just the right amount of tension, setting up for the majestic and stunning Bus Lines, a tune that knows exactly when to scale itself back and when to charge into cacophonous bliss. It's a thrilling turn by a band that's provided its fair share of thrills.

The trick is attempted again with the next track, the nearly eight-minute behemoth Lost In The Grand Scheme, with lesser effect; it's not a bad track, but building up to the song's admittedly great crescendo takes a little too long. Speaking of taking too long, the album's penultimate track serves as a four-minute segue to the white hot finale Sound Of The Silk, which is varied enough in style that it didn't need such a drawn out introduction.

Still, it's easy to let an abundance of ideas cloud your judgment and clutter up your album, and that the overflow is confined to a couple of small isolated pockets on the record is to be commended. Minor grievances aside, IX is a great listen that commands attention and rewards open minds with not just another good Trail Of Dead record, but a great one and very possibly their best since Source Tags & Codes.

November 10, 2014 • Superball/Dine Alone
Highlights The Ghost Within • Jaded Apostles • Sound of the Silk

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Year in Rock 2025

  Alright, I've got some explaining to do.   By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but:   a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider .  W...
Post a Comment
Read more

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...
Post a Comment
Read more