Trail of Dead at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Poking around sound check at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, it's clear we've gotten ourselves into a colossal kind of production. Two full drum sets face off on stage, racks upon racks of guitars flank the performance space, and the amps...my god the amps!

Of course, none of this comes as too much of a surprise. We went to Brooklyn to film Austin's ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead; a broiling, 6-piece progressive monster of an outfit. Recently, the band released The Century of Self on their own independent Richter Scale imprint. Rich, sophisticated, complex, yet ultimately articulate; Century of Self is deep in scope, straining themes of mythology, mysticism, and nature through its' collection of anthemic, hard rock.

Hence the dramatic undertaking in bringing these epic songs to life in the live setting. And thank god for it... The band's unwavering commitment to doing The Century of Self justice translated into a kinetic kind of performance; one that sent an undeniable synergy buzzing 'bout the building the moment the band walked on stage. With fists in the air, sporadic mosh pit eruptions, and even a bit of crowd surfing (by audience and band members alike), the crowd was not always the safest place to be. But damn! was it good time. - David Pitz

New Horizons, unclaimed lands
Await us beyond the walls of our cantonment
I'll return to the far pavilions You can't let it get you down
You were raised on the edge Of this unnamed ghost town
There a million far pavilions Gaze down from upon their heights
Where their eyes, full of wonder, wait to greet you
As you rise, feel the world you know divided up
Above and below Let the roads lead you back
to those places you lived Brick fields full of cut glass
I'll return to the Far Pavilions Where the sidewalks strangled you
As you cradled your friend as he died from a gun wound
I'll return to the Far Pavilions Past love and hatred lies our greatness
Gaze down from upon their heights Where their eyes, full of wonder wait to
greet you As you rise, feel the world you know
divided up Above and below
Oh oh oh... Oh oh oh... Oh oh oh... Oh oh oh...
Oh oh oh... Oh oh oh... Oh oh oh...
Gaze down from upon their heights
Where their eyes, full of wonder, wait to greet you
As you rise, feel the world you know divided up
Above and below I will return to the far pavilions
I have made you in my likeness And I make you the keepers of my garden
world And if you honor me in kind, I will be
grateful, but be warned For I'm an angry, jealous God
Who placed the demons in hell And the angels in heaven
At my side, set me free, I'll grant your hearts desire
Give me daughters, send me sons I'll make them all chosen ones
I will send them out to die To meet the angels of death
With no fears, no regrets I was cast down from the heights
My blood must pay for the debt That was made when they left
Because of me
And if they taste the blood we'll let them drink
And if they taste the flesh we'll let them eat
And if one has to be forgiven then we'll pardon all of them
And if they raze our walls we'll let them in
And if they raise their swords we'll let them hit
And if one has to be forgiven then We'll pardon all of them
We'll pardon all of them We'll pardon all of them
We'll pardon all of them
Let me lead you to the garden world I will place you at the right of my
father's hand While I was tempted in the wild
I crossed from start till end of time And I emerged the sacred lamb
Whose blood must pay for the debt That was made when they left
I was cast down from the heights I'll free the angel from hell
And place them into heaven At my side
Hey thanks.
And thanks to Midnight Masses, our friends, who sang on that song.
Aaron, you okay? It is a round about that I can't leave Only to find obscurity
My life is haunted by young devilry I heard your voice
On my radio Lost into the sky
Brutal kids of this promised future Cut the highways
With shards of truth I call out to my young and black hearted
Do you believe in what I've seen and what I say?
I heard your voice On my radio
Lost into the sky
One day in the middle of the night Back to back
They face each other To the swords on each other
Yeah! Yeah! Do you believe in what I've seen and what
I say? Do you believe in what I've seen and what
I say? Do you believe in what I've seen and what
I say? Do you... Do you... Do you...
Do you believe in what I've seen... See, see, see, see, see...
I see it with my own eyes And I believe it.
Yes! We love all of you, right? I was standing on the shore, facing an
open sea.
I was listening to the sound of the waves
breaking And I thought of all the words that they
were whispering How it kept changing
I was standing in the midst of a great company
Listening to the voices in ecstasy And I watched as all creation was sang
into being How it kept changing
And it was changing.
And all at once I caught a pulse and felt
a rhythm And I thought of the song of the ages
Then the balance slipped and opened up the schism
And I felt like raging
I was staring at the clouds, the rain began to fall softly
Filling up the rivers in Brooklyn And I thought of you and maybe you once
thought of me You kept changing
You were changing And all at once I saw a hole into the
future Well I thought of the bells of creation
I heard the voice of God coming into the music
Well I felt like Satan Well I felt like Satan
I was staring at the clouds, beneath an
open sea I was listening to the sound of the waves
breaking.
And I turned to you and said that we should
never leave, That we changed.
Close the door and drift away
Into a sea of uncertainty Where all your hopes and dreams
Have faded out of reach.
Remember all the bad dreams
Are not far from your reality Would you smile again for me?
And you're awake and there you are
not far off from the line before.
And just how long did it take for you to
understand where your feelings stopped and writing
began? Convince yourself to take control
play to the hilt this unlikely role.
Remember all the bad dreams
are not far from your reality.
Won't you smile again for me?
And who bade you stop with this living art?
Have you forgotten just what you are? If you don't want it then you could at
least pretend that the paper's your soul and your
blood's in the pen.
And maybe then you'd see the light
read the truth, that you had to write.
If heaven sent you downstream
where banished eyes haven't been would you smile again for me?
You misread your fate line had long run out ahead of time.
Would you smile again for me? And you awake and there you are
not far off from the line before.
And just how long did it take for you to
understand where the feeling stopped and the writing
began? Convince yourself to take control
play to the hilt this unlikely role.
If heaven sent you downstream
where banished eyes haven't been Would you smile again for me?
Would you smile again for me? Would you smile again for me?
Would you smile again for me? Would you smile again for me?
Would you smile again for me?
Brooklyn! We're going to play another new song.
I had a dream I received a prophecy Predictions and visions to be written by
me.
I didn't want them to come true, I was afraid
So I decided to run away.
But what could I run to, where could I go?
If I showed my face, all the angry prophets would know
I ran into the wilderness, ran into the cold
I screamed why, oh why did I ever run away?
Don't disturb those fields of coal For they may turn to gold
And if they break you, don't let them run away
With your soul Knights in white lighting shot out of the
remote.
They said stand and be reckoned, I begged
please, let me go.
They said uh-uh, no way, you've gotta come
true We can't let you run away
But I was taught by my mother not to do as I was bid
I always tried to do good but I was just a bad kid
They kicked me out of their schools, they didn't like what I did
And since then I've always been a little runaway
Don't disturb those fields of coal For they may turn to gold
And if they break you, don't let them run away
With your soul I was an alien
And in a ship of white diamond I was encircling the sun
But the ship lost control, I got too close, and I couldn't turn away
The force of its gravity sucked me right in
But it didn't burn solid like the other suns did
Inside was a stage and they wanted me to play
I screamed why, oh why? Would you just let me run away?
Don't disturb those fields of coal For they may turn to gold
And if they break you, don't let them run away
With your soul.
Don't disturb those fields of coal
For they may turn to gold.
And if they break you, don't let them run
away With your soul.
Hard to imagine, hard to perceive
To find an expression for what it all means
Panic and struggle, death and decay It's coming together in relative ways
This electric guitar is hanging to my knees
Gotta a couple of verses I can barely breathe
But it's all right, it's okay It's coming together in relative ways
It's okay, I'm a saint I forgave your mistakes
It's okay, I'm a saint I forgave your mistakes
And it's started to happen, it's started
to change Movement up on us, hope we make it okay
Takes a life or a couple of days It's coming together in relative ways
This electric guitar is hanging to my knees
Gotta a couple of verses I can barely breathe
It's all right, it's okay It's coming together in relative ways
It's okay, I'm a saint I forgave your mistakes
It's okay, I'm a saint I forgave your mistakes
It's okay, I'm a saint I forgave your mistakes
It's okay, I'm a saint I forgave your mistakes
Shhh... One, two, three... One, two and... Well the mood settled down
Once the movie hit town You know all the movies I've seen
You never did understand How I watched all of them
Can't figure how you never did Well the moon is so gold
That it conquers the soul Like that very first moment we kissed
But you never will go far In daddy's Japanese car
Just thinking of the things that we've missed
What good are promises If nobody honors them?
What good are promises If nobody honors them?
And so we never ask 'why?'
Don't say anything nice And don't talk if we meet on the field
Because I want you to know That I let it all go
Even if you never did.
What good are promises
If nobody honors them? What good are promises
If nobody honors them? I don't know
I don't know I don't know
I don't know I don't know
I don't know
Look at his hand move! Check out the shape of his hips as he
goes! Well he's totally natural!
Well actually he's a white ghost Performing in a video.
Well he's only an actor! He's so beautiful to see,
But something's lost underneath, Enter the wounded animal,
Refuse the medals they bestow Shake a hand, take a bow
It's so au natural
The chains lie broken one by one Of a molten-sod illusion of a broken
home a street fight, a Friday night alone
It's a bottle that's warming on a shelf It's feeling inches away from death
It's a street, it's an icicle It's a panic attack, it's only an act.
The chains lie broken one by one Of the molten-sod illusion of a broken
home It's a street fight, it's a Friday night
alone.
It's a bottle warming on a shelf It's feeling just inches away from death
It's a street, it's an icicle It's only an act,
yeah.
it's only an act it's only an act
it's only an act Yeah.
Are you asleep, are you in a dream? The copper shades of a morning
Distant lights beckon and fade Unwritten songs of another day
I fear that you will never be
Every song in the world for me I took your hand, led you astray
You cursed the worlds I longed to save
To save...
Is heaven to you a perfect place? The look of sorrow on a sufferer's face?
A field of lives to sow and reap That some of us will never see
Why is it I don't feel the same?
Are my longings to be blamed.
Of not seeing heaven like you would see
Why is a song a world for me?
For me.. For me. .
What is forgiveness? It's just a dream.
What is forgiveness? It's everything.
What is forgiveness? It's just a dream.
What is forgiveness? It's everything.
What is forgiveness? It's just a dream.
What is forgiveness? It's everything.
What is forgiveness? It's just a dream.
What is forgiveness? It's everything.
Eyes at night never see the day
Because it's not in my nature Golden wings rise from the plane
They burn above the red earth Scale these walls in front of me
Have you ever stopped to wonder... Why they forced your voice to turn
From silence to a caterwaul? Why they forced your voice to turn
From silence to a caterwaul?
Never knew I could feel this way So old and unremembered
Never thought it would slip away And fall like September
Scale these walls in front of me Have you ever stopped to wonder...
Why they forced your voice to turn From silence to a caterwaul?
Why they forced your voice to turn From silence to a caterwaul?
I heard your caterwaul... Caterwaul... Yeah... Caterwaul...
And what has tried to bound me I've severed every tie
When you placed your arms around me And leave the rest behind
What was I to say? How was I to know?
Was it your soft voice that said so? What was I to say?
How was I to know? Was it your soft voice that said so?
What was I to say? How was I to know?
Was it your soft voice that said so? What was I to say?
How was I to know? Was it your soft voice that said so?
Your soft voice... Your soft voice...
Your soft voice... Voice, voice, voice... Oh...
Your soft voice... Your soft voice...
Your soft voice... Yeah
Yeah Yeah
Yeah Yeah
Yeah Your soft voice...
Your soft voice... Your soft voice...
The early morn.
The apocalyptic end We see the light...
Thank you! I know that 1995 was a wonderful year to die but I hear that every year it just
keeps getting better and better and better...
- Hugs, not drugs man. This is... Oh my God.
All right.
We've... Don't let the poor guy die, crack his head open.
- Hey you know those lasers can take out someone's eye.
So you take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen trees,
Past all the haunted, frightened leaves, out to a windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Of crazy sorrow... And when we get there
And when we get there And when we get there
We could just go We could just go
We could just go Or we can kiss
Or we can kiss Or we can kiss
Oh would you go? Oh would you go?
Oh would you go? Oh would you go?
Oh would you go? Oh would you go?
We can die now Die now
Die now Die now
Die now Die now

Dear listener,

This is our seventh album. We hope you enjoy it.
Please play it with volume.

Sincerely,
Conrad Keely, ...Trail of Dead

Questions you might wish to ask or want to know about the album:
Where was this album recorded?
At the Sonic Ranch in El Paso Texas.

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of this album?
No.

At what point do you see this album in your career?
This is our seventh album.

Was this a difficult record for you to make?
No, it was dead easy.

How does this album fit in with what is currently going on in music?
We hope it does not.

What were some of your influences in making this album?
Kraftwerk, Rush... I'm sure we're forgetting one or two.

What is your favorite planet?
Venus. As a kid it was Mars, but now it's Venus.

Why is the album titled Tao of the Dead?
Jason came up with the title as a pun, because we used the Tao Te
Ching as inspiration for lyrics.

That's interesting, would you like to comment more about that?
Not really, no.

I see you have a different line-up. How has this affected the music?
I could try to explain it with words, or you could listen to the album.

We also noticed you have a different label in the US. Would you like
to say something about that?
If something comes up we think you should be aware of we'll let you
know.

At what point do you see your career?
We're at the sixteen year mark.

Is there a theme or story behind the lyrics of this album?
If answering yes means you want me to tell you rather than have you
discover it yourself, then, no.

Are you happy with this album?
It's my favorite one so far.