★★★★★
For 20 years, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead has barreled head first into each of its musical immersions. Over the course of nine albums, the Austin quartet has ratcheted punk, baroque pop, and prog, often all at once. Now, after years of album-length genre-bending, the band's settled on a thundering happy medium with
- www.austinchronicle.com
2014-11-20
★★★★★
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead co-founders Conrad Keely and Jason Reece have been fighting an uphill battle against critical opinion for almost a decade now. The shadows of the critical acclaim for 2002's Source Tags and Codes (which sadly did not make PopMatters' recent list of Top 100 Albums of the 2000s) and the subsequent critical excoriation that 2005's Worlds Apart and 2006's So Divided received have loomed over the band ever since...
- www.popmatters.com
2014-11-11
★★★★★
The sonic and emotional centerpiece of Trail of Dead's ninth LP is "Bus Line," a six-minute epic equal parts art-rock lava and dream-pop dew. "Can't wait for the rain to end/ Can't wait to be home again," sings frontman Conrad Keely, navigating the sharp corners of fuzz-stained seventh-chords while reflecting on a backpacking excursion. Midway through, the volatile 7/8 assault evaporates into the ether, as starlit vocal harmonies swoon over campfire acoustic strums...
- www.wonderingsound.com
2014-11-11
★★★★★
The sonic and emotional centerpiece of Trail of Dead's ninth LP is "Bus Line," a six-minute epic equal parts art-rock lava and dream-pop dew. "Can't wait for the rain to end/ Can't wait to be home again," sings frontman Conrad Keely, navigating the sharp corners of fuzz-stained seventh-chords while reflecting on a backpacking excursion. Midway through, the volatile 7/8 assault evaporates into the ether, as starlit vocal harmonies swoon over campfire acoustic strums...
- www.wonderingsound.com
2014-11-14
★★★★★
On this belting ninth album, ...Trail Of Dead's resurgence continues, further reining in the prog excesses that diluted their '00s efforts ('Source Tags & Codes', 'Worlds Apart'). Themed around death and loss, 'IX' sees the Texans at their most focused and thrilling. Portentous song titles and elemental imagery abound as 'The Doomsday Book' ushers in an opening sequence whose howling guitar and thunderstorm drumming recalls the promise of the Austin band's early days...
- www.nme.com
2014-11-10
★★★★★
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead IXBy Lisa SookrajAfter three solid albums of smoldering bliss, post hardcore/art/prog-rockers ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead experimented further, receiving mixed responses to their next five albums. The distinguished sound on IX feels like a combination of those latter albums -- it's good, but it doesn't astound...
- exclaim.ca
2014-11-08
★★★★★
Despite the critical narrative that tends to divide up ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead's discography between everything up to and including 2002's mammoth , and everything after (often charitably described as, "well, at least they're trying"), it would be disingenuous to state that the band's path has not been an interesting one...
- www.sputnikmusic.com
2014-11-06
★★★★★
For ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead's ninth album, the band appropriately named it IX. Perhaps at one point in time this band would have been considered an alternative rock band or maybe a post-hardcore band (which to me seems like quite the stretch), but it seems like with IX the band is aiming to sound almost an arena rock band, which is something typically punk rock has been against since it's inception. Bands like Kings of Leon and U2 came to mind when listening to IX...
- www.punknews.org
2014-11-09
★★★★★
On their ninth album ...And You Will Us By The Trail Of Dead are steadily continuing their journey towards being a Normal Rock Band, but remain unable to quite finish it. As far back as their first album they've been touring the various hotspots of psychedelia, punk, classical and world music, all with a maniacal, effervescent touch. Accuse them of failing at some of these stylistic endeavours, fine - but to their immense credit, they've never been mere genre dilettantes...
- thequietus.com
2014-10-24
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