- Record Label: Richter Scale/Justice
- Release Date: Feb 17, 2009
- Critic score
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- By date
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Their sixth album enlists Michael Bay levels of volume and grandeur in the service of alarmingly generic, hookless power ballads and plodding prog etudes.
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Self's intense sound feels like much ado about not so much.
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The good news is that this is, in fact, a throwback to their earlier work. The bad news is that it’s not throwback enough.
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Century of Self is at times a stirring, effective rock album, familiar but stable, but the band's general creativity is less vital than they think, and rather than settle down they continue a fussy streak of projects loaded with hollow, stilted ambition.
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Trail of Dead succeeds here by putting together a collection of songs that accurately reflects the kind of band they have always been. This is still a brash, sweeping, “ring the alarm bell!” brand of music. It’s just not that fun to listen to anymore.
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UncutA familiar sound predominates: an impressive fanfare for a royal procession that never quite arrives. [Apr 2009, p.78]
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Q MagazineTrail Of dead have kept faith with their traditional mix of prog pomp and grunge power for their sixth album. [Apr 2009, p.97]
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No other band could legitimately produce this record without being accused of extreme plagiarism, and perhaps that goes some way to explaining why, despite its shortcomings, it is still likeable.
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As promising as its initial concentration of songs foretells, The Century Of Self suffers from careless sequencing, its tempos haphazardly spooned together and flung like high school portions of mashed potatoes and gravy, slopped into sections of the tray with no real purpose or benefit.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 32 out of 37
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Mixed: 2 out of 37
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Negative: 3 out of 37
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Oct 10, 2010
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DavidGMar 22, 2009
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KarenHMar 19, 2009Terrible album, so boring.