..And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Worlds Apart
Interscope / 2005
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Worlds Apart

Long noted more for their incendiary live performances than for their recorded output, ..And You Will Know Us by the Trail Dead achieved an artistic breakthrough with their major label debut, 2002’s Source Tags & Codes. The album earned a well-deserved spot on many a critic’s yearly top-ten list. Still, many found the band’s music difficult to categorize. Is it prog rock? Post punk? Post rock/experimental? And how would the band, known for its instability, respond to the success of ST&C?

On Worlds Apart, Trail of Dead’s sophomore release for Interscope, Conrad Keely and Co. swing for the fences. The band charges right out of the gate with album opener “Will You Smile Again.” We’re in familiar territory as layers of guitar are spilled over an aggressive, slightly complicated drum beat. Then, roughly 90 seconds in, a muted trumpet rings out and the song dissolves into something completely different. Keely sings “Close the door and drift away/into a sea of uncertainty,” over a pulsating beat, raising the curtain on this compelling if at times overly-ambitious album.

Worlds Apart works best when the band plays it straight. The album’s first six tracks rank among the best they’ve recorded. The title track may as well be the album’s mission statement. Keely leads a profanity-laden diatribe against an impossibly numb, post-9/11 society that has commercialized everything he holds sacred. Elsewhere the chaotic “The Rest Will Follow” segues nicely into the pulverizing “Caterwaul.” However, it’s during the second half of the album that the band’s tendency for bombast begins to overwhelm the material. “Classic Arts Showcase,” an otherwise average rock song, features a lengthy and seemingly out of place instrumental solo complete violins and wailing female vocalists. And the brief yet powerful “All White” probably would’ve been just fine without that choir in the background.

Despite its occasional lapses into the realm of, yes, progressive rock, Worlds Apart ultimately succeeds on the strength of the Trail of Dead’s obvious talent both with their instruments and with the studio. It’s the sound of a band unafraid to push the boundaries, even at the risk of sounding at times, a bit absurd.

-- Dan Tebo, 03/15/05
 

 

 

 

  
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