“IX” by …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
It’s been nearly 13 years since Trail of Dead’s landmark 2002 album Source Tags and Codes was released, fusing together the preferred American indie-rock genres of the late 1990s (post-rock, post-hardcore, Radiohead-styled-alt-rock) and coming up with something timeless and and unique that inspired generations of neo-prog bands to spring up in its aftermath. After all this time, the sound pioneered on Source Tags is starting to finally show its age, as IX is largely steeped in the same fiery prog riffs, quasi-orchestral crescendos, and impassioned vocals of dual frontmen Conrad Keeley and Jason Reece that made Source Tags so vital at the beginning of the last decade.
So much has changed for guitar-based rock in the last decade, and Trail of Dead are now on the outside looking in, making being a Trail of Dead fan in 2014 start to feel like how King Crimson fans must have felt like in the late 1980s. That’s not to say there aren’t a few wonderful moments on IX. The back-to-back blasts of space-rock “Bus Lines” and “Lost in the Grand Scheme” manage to make their signature brand of prog-rock sound relevant again. The album’s closing tracks “Like Summer Tempests” and “Sound of the Silk” are Trail at their most delightfully retro, channeling the Moody Blues at their most psychedelic.
Still, the meandering and tedious first half of IX isn’t quite good enough to justify sticking around for its awesome-at-times second half. But there are a few moments on here exciting enough to make you want get out the ol’ circa-2003 mini-disc player and get your alt-rock on. What’s wrong with that? »
– Casey Hardmeyer
