Tao of the Dead

After a decade of awkward experimentation and major label hassles, venerable Austin rockers ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead have returned to their bombastic winning formula. Leave it to singer/guitarist/graphic artist/oddball renaissance man Conrad Keely to embrace a left field concept to get the band back into form. Tao of the Dead (a deliberately pompous, tongue-in-cheek title) consists of twelve songs divided into two distinct halves, the first tuned entirely to D and the second, in F. Through it all, Trail of Dead unleashes some of their best songs to date, full of shifting harmonies and startling time changes. Co-manning the boards is Chris "Frenchie" Smith, who produced the group's self-titled debut back in 1998. Smith's production dodges the distractions that brought down overdone works like 2006's So Divided and strips things down to what amde them great to begin with: pummeling drums and layers of intense guitarwork. The triumphant return to form produces two of the band's best songs in years, "Pure Radio Cosplay" and "Summer of All Dead Souls," along with some new tricks like the considerably less in-your-face "Weight of the Sun" and "Ebb Away." Tao of the Dead proves to be the band's best work since 2005's art rock opus Worlds Apart and their most encouraging follow-up to 2001's essential Source Tags and Codes to date.