| Fiction
Funhouse - Nov, 2001 by Someone | |
The
Relative Ways EP is a four-track appetizer of new recordings by …And You Will
Know Us By The Trail Of Dead that promises a tasty full-course meal to come. "Relative Ways" is perhaps TOD's poppiest song to date, a brilliant hard-bouncing piece of melody that, in true TOD fashion, reaches anguished vocal and cymbal crashing highs. It would not be inappropriate to name-check the best of Nirvana here. "Homage" is perhaps TOD's hardcore-est song to date, a dynamically violent screeching blast that assaults like Refused and sings like Slayer: "My life is haunted by young devilry… I call out to all those young and black hearted". Caution: This song nearly snapped necks live; it's not for the weak of heart. "Blood Rites" was originally recorded for a soundtrack for the MTV show "Jackass". But when too many of Tomorrow's Leaders, i.e., our young people of today, decided it would be cool to mimic the stunts on "Jackass" and do fun stuff, like, you know, light themselves on fire, the show was cancelled— and then so was the soundtrack. Which is a shame: "Blood Rites" is a two-minute machine-gun strafe of deathskatepunk that would have been a perfect accompaniment to video footage of goofballs getting thrown off speeding treadmills and weird midgets skating half-pipes. The first three songs are connected by instrumental interludes similar to the inter-track segues on TOD's last full-length, Madonna. "The Blade Runner" is an entirely instrumental track that takes over where the interludes leave off, an eerie atmospheric sound-over for a panoramic camera shot of hell, an oddly affecting and necessary comedown from the ten minutes of mayhem that precedes it. The Relative Ways is Trail Of Dead's first release for Interscope records; "Relative Ways" and "Homage" will be on the full-length album that comes out next February. The range from melody to hardcore displayed in these two songs bodes well for TOD's major label future and promises that, as previously predicted, the new album is gonna kill-Kill-KILL. | |
