...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

THE REVIEW

Great Debut from the Texan band with the improbably long name. The ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead launched this self-titled debut album in 1998. The lineup is the most spartan in the band's history, with multi-instrumentalists Conrad Keely and Jason Reece at the helm of the compositional process and Kevin Allen as an additional guitarist, far from the current setup, which includes at least three more members.

The debut of these two minds is a strikingly diverse and changeable work. The most disparate musical influences are incorporated into the songwriting of this "...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead" without being well blended first, yet this does not result in a jumble of mismatched sounds. To be clear, the crafting of the musical textures appears very balanced, managing to equally distribute the spaces of the various "faces" of this polymorphic creature. Listening to this unstable creature means not only being disoriented by the eight minutes of psychedelic-noise hypnosis of "Novena Without Faith", not only being stunned by the feedback explosions of the opener "Richter Scale Madness", and not only being thrown to the ground by the hardcore fury of "Prince With A Thousand Enemies" and "Ounce Of Prevention" before the final, slow, and finally relaxed "When We Begin To Steal..." allows us to catch our breath, but also much more. This well-balanced mix of psychedelia, noise, and hardcore can truly satisfy even the most demanding indie fans.

Because ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are not just those hyped up idiots who smash their instruments on stage, and because they are also not just those damned sellouts who sold out to play the Elton John of the moment.