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[one_half last=”yes”]…AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
IX
Release-Date: 20.10.2014
Label: Superball Music
Tracklist:
01. The Doomsday Book
02. Jaded Apostles
03. A Million Random Digits
04. Lie Without A Liar
05. The Ghost Within
06. The Dragonfly Queen
07. How To Avoid Huge Ships
08. Bus Lines
09. Lost In The Grand Scheme
10. Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears
11. Sound Of The Silk
NBHAP Rating: 4/5
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Spanning legacy
It’s been quite a while now in which the Texan outfit with the not so-subtle bandname thrashes through the alternative rock-scene. They had their furious startings, their glorious, epic peaks, times of (Majordeal-inflicted) letdowns and of grim, stubborn renewal. Whatsoever people suggest: they never really lost track of their art. Where to place record number IX you ask? Everywhere. At the bottom, at the heart, drenched in crashing noise, devastating voices, sprawling beauty, strings, pianos etc. …And You Will Know Them…
Intimacy
Probably more than anything it’s TRAIL OF DEAD‘s band-chemistry that makes up the magic of their music. The reflective intellectual head Conrad Keely mixed up with Jason Reece’s impulsive energy and their common sense for the meta-levels. But despite their tongue-in-cheek reputation they’ve always been bloody honest and direct in their lyrics, so that you get the impression that IX marks a quite intimate point in this band’s meandering output, addressing love, relationships and decay.
Historicists of rock
From their arguable steam-punk-artworks to their highly ambitious concept-records: …AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD is all about presenting something of their own; digestible or not. In the same manner they take whatever they get as influences: prog-rock meets post-hardcore meets emo meets punk meets pop – you can find a lot of these on IX as well. But they did well in bringing it together this time. You can listen to this record as a whole, you can listen to it in little pieces – the important thing is that you do it loud.
The essence of a postmodern legacy: …AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD return to a constraint, focussed version of their thriving rock. A return to form.
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