...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Century Of Self
Hopefully this review won’t take as long to read is it does to write out the band’s name, or for Conrad Keely to make another ballpoint-pen art drawing. How does he do that without making a mistake? I could look for signs of twink, or maybe let’s get to the crux of it – Trail Of Dead have been making irritable rock albums out of Austin Texas for as long as I can remember, from the early one I don’t have, to the Merge one called ‘Madonna’ - which I always enjoyed hanging out the washing to (there was a lyric there that just went “fuck you, fuck you, fuck you” - perhaps I’m a sadist washing hanger-outer??) - and on and on until the last album ‘So Divided’ was issued a few years back.
Each record seemed progressively softer than the last one, of a fashion – they explored various instruments and band set-ups - but this new one comes complete with a new drummer who has, it seems, cottoned on to the fact that these guys are the best when they keep up the tempo and shed riffs in epic style. It feels like the drummer is the lynchpin to this record, the key to the band’s return to monstrous kicking of ass, pounding of pianos, and generally blowing your hair back. I definitely recommend this record, especially if you love drinking beer and arguing about music with your friends. Works a treat for me! Pray for vinyl. Released on Richter Scale / Justice Records.
DP
