AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD - IX

Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Alternative/Indie, Prog | Heft: Jahrgang 2014, eclipsed Nr. 165 / 11-2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 8/10 | Label: Superball | Autor: MaB


The album is about loss, and we all made our experiences with it. We hope you'll all understand. If you can't, you're not human and you deserve to die." Trail Of Dead are known to have the joker on their back, but when it comes to their music, they are serious. While the previous album "Lost Songs" wasn't convincing all the time, the material of "IX" continues the variety of "Source Tags & Codes" (2002) and "Worlds Apart" (2005). At the same time the tracklist seems very coherent, which was not a matter of course for the Texas band until now. Cleverly, Conrad Keely, Jason Reece, Autry Fulbright II and Jamie Miller divided the songs so that first all straight songs and then all experimental songs can be heard. Reece denies any intention ("We're not that complex!"), but this variant still has its appeal. Moreover, "IX" is highly melodic, whereby "The Doomsday Book" and the hymnal "Lie Without A Liar" sound almost hit-suspicious. Also in the drum department there is a lot to discover again, because hardly any rock band has such strong drum grooves, which are literally orchestral. In "Jaded Apostles" (a homage to Kurt Cobain) Miller does without cymbals, so that a drum sound like "Peter Gabriel III" is created. For some songs strings and piano are used, which the band had already seen well before. But Trail Of Dead sell best with the more progressive songs "Bus Lines", "Lost In The Grand Scheme" and the "Sound Of The Silk" enriched with world music elements. "IX" is the most accessible Trail-Of-Dead album and will certainly also appeal to rock fans who have been away from the band so far.

Top track: Sound Of The Silk

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