...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Tao Of The Dead

Some bands reach for the stars and fall short. And some end up in another galaxy.

When …And You Willl Know Us by the Trail of Dead singer Conrad Keely described the band’s new album, he said he always wanted to create an album that was a continuous piece of music and referenced albums such as Yes’ Relayer, Rush’s Hemispheres and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.

Obviously, those are pretty big aspirations. And while I’m not sure Tao of the Dead, the band’s seventh album, will be mentioned with the likes of those albums, this is still a brilliant piece of work.

Trail of the Dead’s intent was to concoct an album that was basically just one long song, well technically two (the album is 12 tracks, the final one separated into five parts). I can honestly say that it feels like that. Every song does bare difference from the others, but they also flow seamlessly into one another.  You’d think that the band never stopped playing while recording the album.

And just to be clear, this is one grandiose album. It is equal parts mathy, atmospheric and upbeat rock n roll. There are plenty of sunny, trippy synth flourishes. And there are plenty crunchy rock numbers that warrant playing loudly. This album has as big a sound as any of Trail of Dead’s previous works, maybe even bigger and grander.

I’d pick out individual tracks and elaborate on each, but that would defeat the purpose of the record. This really is just one long piece of music, one that shouldn’t be listened to by skipping ahead to your favorite song. This is an all-around enjoyable album. It’s a concept album that doesn’t need you to think much about it to fully appreciate it.

I know it’s only January, but Trail of the Dead have set the bar for 2011 pretty high.

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