Viva La Vinyl

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - The Century Of Self

This is the reissue that come out on Record Store Day last year that I wasn’t able to grab at the time. I’ve been following this release on Discogs, and one finally popped up for a great price, and I jumped on it.

This was my introduction to the band, so I’ll let my original thoughts from 2009 speak for themselves:

This album starts with a really epic song, and it threw me off... Instrumental, Prog-ish sounding electronic rock... Then "Far Pavillions" comes in with a mid-nineties alternative sound.

From the name of the band alone, I was under the assumption that these guys were a Gothic-Emo sort of band. Sludge Metal, singing about the medieval Age of Darkness, and plagues and shit like that. Renaissance Fairs and puffy shirts.

I've never listened to this band, and I am really pleasantly surprised. I wanna try to go back and listen to some of their older stuff, since those are regarded as their better albums — but that's what everyone says about every band.

This is my favorite album of the year, so far. It's beyond all that Pop Nonsense. High energy rock with ethereal bridges — Sonic Youth-meets-Mogwai breakdowns in the middle of their songs. Vocals sound like the Brit Pop whine of the early/mid-nineties. Guitar tones reminding me of The Bends era Radiohead...

Really glad I tried this one out.

A little disappointed that the art wasn’t reproduced as a huge booklet like Worlds Apart was, but this was a Record Store Day (I don’t want to say Cash In) release and not a full-on band/label anniversary reissue project, or anything. But if they did end up doing one of those for this album, then I’d probably have to double-dip and get that one, too.

-bcp

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - The Century Of Self [Apple Music]