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Wow! Can't claim to have been be a big fan of this band - though enjoyed some of their previous stuff particularly the last one "Century of the self".
This is almost like a 3-way fight between space rock/prog and punk but a lot better than that sounds! The band said they were influenced by such classic albums as Hemispheres by Rush and the Yes albums Relayer/Close to the edge - not bad albums to be influenced by!
The first consists of the 35 minute blockbuster Tao of the dead and second one the 16 minute epic Strange news from another planet.
The first of these, Tao, has many catchy highlights - Pure radio cosplay, Summer of all dead souls and Weight of the sun ("YOU WILL PAY - THE HIGHER THAT YOUR SOAR") - can't stop playing the whole damn thing. As for the second track "strange news..." if you don't get a rush from the opening 2/3 minutes I'd check to see if you still have a pulse - I have it on repeat play - my 3 teenage kids love it too - so I can claim to be almost trendy!
The second disc is the first 35 minute track Tao conveniently split into 11 tracks makling it far more accessible. I wish Echolyn had done that for their excellent epic "Mei".
Final mention of the artwork + inside story - great - the story is really well written - an extract from a book being written by band member Conrad Keely.
This album shouldn't really work for my tastes - but I've had it on the cd player virtually non-stop for the last 2 weeks or so. Worth checking the clips from I-tunes to see if it has the same positive impact on you.
Excellent stuff.
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Review
Seventeen years (!) and seven albums (!!) down the line and …Trail of Dead are producing some of their most consistent – and best – work yet. That’s not merely noteworthy in this day and age, that’s staggering – and considering Tao of the Dead was written and recorded faster than any of their previous albums by some distance, the only logical conclusion is that, when placed next to 2009’s wonderful The Century of Self, it represents one of rock’s most beloved bands hitting as rich a seam of form as we’ve seen before.
As revered as Source Tags & Codes (their calling card and still the go-to album for noise-rock newbies, with good reason) still is, there are moments on Tao… that surpass it for sheer joyous racket-making. Summer of All Dead Souls and Weight of the Sun (Or the Post-Modern Prometheus), for example, burn with firestorm guitars and air-punching choruses and mix melody and squalls of noise with the deft touch you’d expect from a band this accomplished. The core of the band, Jason Reece and Conrad Keely, might have chosen to switch up their supporting cast but in staying true to their ineffableness they’ve updated their sound without leaving anything behind.
But what makes Tao… feel so fluid is the fact the likes of Cover the Days Like a Tidal Wave, the sunny The Wasteland and Ebb Away, as happily woozy a song as …Trail of Dead have ever written, are so restrained. There’s more of a rhythm and cadence to the record as a whole than we’re used to, and it succeeds in making Tao… arguably more of a complete journey than even Source Tags….
And closing the album with the 16-minute Strange News From Another Planet only accentuates this as it’s like a microcosm of the entire record – fluid, liquid grooves rushing into thudding passages of chunky aggression and back again, all in what feels like the blink of an eye.
The conclusion, then, is clear: both as a standalone record and part of …Trail of Dead’s considerable canon, Tao of the Dead will be remembered as a high point.
--Stephanie Burkett
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