And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
(Justice Records)
There's something very self-righteous about all the promotional hoopla surrounding the new Trail of Dead record. Their new label's motto is "Freeing the slaves one master at a time," a music-industry pun on artistic ownership. The band's press release describes its departure from Interscope as "emancipation." But is all this really so shocking, coming from Trail of Dead? They are an extremely talented bunch of musicians who constantly vacillate between teetering on the edge of epic-rock grandeur and creating beautifully intricate progressive punk and indie rock. If nothing else, this band makes bold statements.
Their new album is being touted as a turning point in the band's career, given its professed newfound freedom. That's a valid summation, as it neither reaches the exuberance of Source Tags and Codes nor becomes the pratfall that was So Divided.
Throughout the course of this almost hour-long record, arrangements are loud, brash, and complicated, a cinematic orchestra of power chords and pounding kick drums. From the opening chords of "Giants Causeway," the tone is set. Every song seems to scream, "I AM A BIG, DYNAMIC, EPIC ROCK SONG!!" Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. "Isis Unveiled" begins with a rumbling Alice in Chains-style bassline and ends with staccato chords getting slower and quieter, until the whole mess rears its head again. "Fields of Coal" features a sing-a-long verse that sounds cheesy and clichéd at first, but grows on you with its cheerleading insistence. "Ascending" is one of the better songs on the record. This song sounds more like old school Trail of Dead, with dueling vocals sloppily battering and overlapping each other against a backdrop of simple, high-spirited rock chords.
The problem is that Trail of Dead often sounds like a band that thinks it's bigger or more important than it is. For better or for worse, and on The Century of Self it goes both ways, grandiose ideas are pummeled over the listeners head from start to finish. Considering all this, it's hard to take the middle ground, but The Century of Self's unevenness forces the matter.
Standout Tracks: "Ascending," "Halcyon Days" JONAH FLICKER
