Trail of Dead comes roaring back

'The Century of Self' features inspired, progressive gothic punk.

By Patrick Daugherty

Published Feb. 26, 2009

In music circles, the word "comeback" has been rendered meaningless over the years since it has been used to describe everything from an album slightly better than its predecessor to every Metallica album. It is used with such spectacular reckless abandon, that few, if any, people still take it seriously.

But those people don't follow ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, whose recent trail has consisted mostly of their own careers.

Since their widely-acclaimed 2002 effort, "Source Tags & Codes," things haven't gone so well for TOD. They have been unceremoniously dropped by Interscope, released a series of increasingly overblown albums and EPs and been defined by having a song on the "MVP Baseball 2005" soundtrack. In other words, they have spent most of their time alienating everyone who grew to love them and propped them up in the first place.

Having fallen so far, TOD could have taken a dump on a turntable, double-tracked it, called it their new album, and it still would have constituted a comeback, since a lot people weren't really sure if they would ever be back at all.

This is why it's especially surprising not only that is TOD back, but back with such ferocity and focus that listeners wonder how they ever went away in the first place. This isn't just "Death Magnetic" -- it's career-saving.

TOD has recommitted wholeheartedly to the style that made them famous -- a bastardized, unwieldy, form of free-wheeling gothic punk/prog.

It's clear things are different from the outset of "The Century of Self," when after a wandering opener, "Far Pavillions" crashes in with pummeling drums and desperate vocals before giving way to a -- wait for it -- call and response Taking Back Sunday style chorus that works better than 99 percent of Taking Back Sunday call and response choruses.

TOD then tears through two effective six-minute epics, "Isis Unveiled" and "Halcyon Days," before arriving at possibly the best song of their career, "Bells of Creation."

While the version featured here is not quite as good as the "machete mix" of it from last fall's preview EP, "Festival Thyme," it is still their most inspired song since "Source Tags" and easily one of the best of the year.

A nautical piano chord starts chiming before quickly being greeted by militant drums, echoing guitar and vocalist Conrad Keely's trademark whine. While the verses are interesting, the song's chorus and breakdown, which feature perhaps the fastest drumming recorded since Dave Grohl last sat behind a kit, reach a truly epic level of rock and roll that few achieve in 2009. It is the perfect merging of the unhinged style that made TOD famous and the sappy tendencies that derailed them in recent years.

From there, they never achieve quite the same high again, but still manage to turn in some inspired and wholly original songs. "Luna Park" is a surprisingly effective and heartfelt ballad, while "Fields of Coal" is an impossibly upbeat and propulsive chant that only Trail of Dead could write and release.

Not everything works. Trail of Dead still have a tendency to meander too often, and to stretch only ok ideas out to great lengths. After the ferocity and urgency of the album's first half, things fizzle out near the end amid a series of boring medieval ballads and faux-classical tunes. But by then the blows have already been landed and no doubt established Trail of Dead is indeed back. Hopefully they stick around this time.