It’s snowing like a mofo outside which means there will likely be a Fuckin Snow post in the near future. But before that I have one last workout to accomplish today, a 60 minute interval spin at the gym. And to keep myself inspired through that, I have the ‘Tao of the Dead‘ album by …And They Will Know By the Trail of Dead.
First of all, look at that album. Is that Simply the Tits or what?
God, I could stare into that for days. Shit, Is that a fox shooting a laser gun?
Classic.
‘Tao of the Dead’ was recorded in ten days (2011). The band stripped down to its core four-piece lineup for the record, deviating from the past two records that featured a filled-out six-piece band. This resulted in a stripped-down record with heavy emphasis on guitar. It is a two-part record, each side with a specific musical tuning; Part I in D and Part II in F.
As if I know the difference.
The album can be listened to as 16 different movements or two lengthy tracks. Part I, ‘Tao of the Dead‘, is split into eleven tracks, whereas Part II, ‘Strange News From Another Planet‘, is five songs combined into one. Conrad Keely, in an interview with Spin Magazine, described the album’s composition thusly:
“It’s the way I listened to albums when I was a kid, seeing as some of my favorite records were Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, Yes’s ‘Relayer’ and ‘Close to the Edge’… I always liked listening to records that were just a continuous piece, like an orchestra or a symphony.”
Describe it as you like, dude, all I know is that once the suck started in around the 15:00 minute mark of the workout I had a lot of motivation to push through the 3 x (1 minute HARD/1 minute easy) intervals with a little tempo inbetween, thanks to this album. ‘Let’s Experiment‘, ‘Pure Radio Cosplay‘ (which may not be my favorite spin tune, like, ever), ‘Somewhere Over the Double Rainbow‘ (maybe my second favorite spin tune ever), ‘World’s Apart‘, ‘Summer of All Dead Souls‘, and ‘Weight of the Sun (Or the Post-Modern Prometheus)‘ – just to mention a few but, whoooo Nelly!
This album absolutely smokes!
Even my brain is absolutely exhausted.
