And you will know us by the trail of dead - Tao of the dead review

I'm a big believer in listening to entire albums. Albums with one or two radio friendly tracks and filled up with white noise really annoy me. Tao of the dead is an album meant to be listen to all at once. It is influenced heavily by albums like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The tracks blend into each other and form one overall concept.

But different to Dark Side this album doesn't really go anywhere. It starts of with Track 1 -  Introduction: Let us experiment and 40 minutes later at Track 11 - Somewhere over the rainbow the mood and emotion is still very similar, with very little moments in between. Concept albums should move and evolve to leave you satisfied at the end.

I've been listening to Tao of the dead for three days straight, as concept albums usually take a while to get into. But instead of it grabbing me, I find myself growing bored with it.  Worlds apart (2005) was a brilliant album and had a lot more to offer than Tao of the dead.

For Trail of the dead fans this album is exactly what you would expect. Their sound hasn't changed much and all the hype of this album being a genre influencing release is a bit over ambitious. It is worth a listen but I don't see it having a lasting impact. I respect the direction Trail of dead is moving into and future releases might see them write that epic concept album.

Stereo 8 recommends: Maybe, it is worth listening to just to know what is happening in the genre.

V