| Spin
Magazine - January, 2000 by Joe Gross | |
Austin,
Texas-via-Olympia, Washington's Trail of Dead kick sheets of head-melting skree
equal parts Texas rawk swagger and Pacific Northwest postpunk thunder. Everyone
trades off instruments (there's that Olympia communal-ism) on divine screamers
that aren't above driving the occasional melody with a buried xylophone
("Blight Takes All"). "Mark David Chapman" is the thinking punk's midtempo ballad of the year, piling emo elegies like "It's just another black stare/ To a world that loves or hates you on a dare" onto guitar hooks worthy of Total Request Live. And "Aged Dolls" is for everyone who thought our great nation ceded the proggy epic to Mogwai and Radiohead in some unfortunate trade agreement. Rating: 8 (out of 10) | |
