- Record Label: Richter Scale/Justice
- Release Date: Feb 17, 2009
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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The Century of Self is compelling proof that the only way a band as fiercely ambitious, righteous, and single-minded as ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead can do things is on their own.
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This Texas rock combo returns to form on The Century of Self, with producer Chris Coady stepping in for longtime collaborator Mike McCarthy.
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After releasing two albums that bored even its most ardent fans, . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is back to blowing minds with The Century of Self.
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Ultimately The Century Of Self won't trouble the charts and Trail Of Dead's status as a cult act will be assured. But there's enough here to keep their small group of followers very happy indeed.
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After the proggy overindulgence of their previous two albums, these Texans gracefully balance the dynamic alt rock of 2002's Source Tags & Codes with their more recent multimovement epics.
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Sometimes the rigid pattern of power-murk-power gets a little too predictable, but the pleasure of having a Trail Of Dead album that contains mostly good parts and no blind alleys more than makes up for any reduction in ambition.
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Alternative PressThe Century of Self finds the pride of Austin, Texas, continuing to push baroque prog-rock to orchestral new heights. [Mar 2008, p.112]
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Conrad Keely’s vocals remain scabby and untreated and there’s still a bit much sonic compression, but the relative rawness adds a subtle flair to this record.
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There's early promise of a Dead revival in rocker ''Far Pavillions'' and the epic prog of ''Bells of Creation,'' but the album's meandering second half loses us as it loses itself.
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Texas's Trail of Dead settle into a nice groove somewhere between the two on their sixth album.
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The Century of Self turns out to be every bit as stubborn as its predecessors, even as it goes a certain way towards justifying them.
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Trail of Dead's post-major label debut, The Century of Self, may be the Austin institution's most conceptually complete work to date, a post-prog cathedral of mythical mini-epics, though it's by no means the band's masterpiece.
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The feeling persists that The Century Of Self marks an important moment for ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead--one in which they began to weave together their diverging paths and one that, after all, should be hailed as a victory.
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For the most part, Trail of Dead veer back and forth between styles mined on "Worlds Apart" and "Source Tags," making The Century of Self the strongest of their recent efforts. But it’s still an inconsistent one.
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.