After one richly praised classic (2002’s Source Tags &
Codes) and one dud (2005’s Worlds Apart), Texas’ Trail of
Dead settles into a nice groove somewhere between the two on its sixth
album. It still sounds like Drive like Jehu meets Yes, and its
specialty continues to be intense songs that could double as the
soundtrack to an epic film featuring demons and elves. The song titles
reflect this: “Halcyon Days,” “Fields of Coal,” “Bells of Creation.”
Conrad Keeley is still not what you might call a gifted vocalist, but
he stays within his limits, except for that odd falsetto on “Inland
Sea.”
The band also pays more attention to sequencing than most outfits in
this Internet age; the individual tracks sound as if they couldn’t work
anywhere but alongside one another. Yet whereas Trail of Dead at first
was hailed for the way it held nothing back, it could now perhaps
benefit from some restraint — its foray into Weillian waltz-time
piano weirdness (the two-part “Insatiable”) is ill-considered. I’m
tempted to say it should stick to what it does best; then again, its
power ballad, “Luna Park,” isn’t half bad. (Richter Scale)
