Since their debut, the Trail Of Dead have been aiming for epic songs, inspired by prog and Fantasy. Earlier in their career they - by ‘they’ I mean Conrad Keely and Jason Reece, the heart of the band, hewed to a rougher, punkier aesthetic when aiming for this epic sound. It’s clear when listening to ‘Aged Dolls’ or ‘Mark David Chapman’ (from second album Madonna) the path the band were destined to tread, and the pretensions of naming a track ‘Clair De Lune’ couldn’t get more prog. Even looking at the track names and cover of the out-of-print self-titled debut gives clues to their future direction. Titles like ‘Gargoyle Waiting’ and ‘Prince With A Thousand Enemies’ fit, even if the noise-rock content and lo-fi production didn’t. What, I think, captured a lot of people about this band was that melding of noisy crashing punk-tinged rock with the giddy ambition of prog. Not only that, but a latent sense of melody at work in the background, with overt emotional catharcism. Trail Of Dead seemed (seem) to work best when creating heart-clenching explosions - from ‘Half Of What’ to ‘Sigh Your Children’ to ‘How Near How Far’ to ‘Counting Off The Days’. Maybe that’s just me though. The general consensus states that from Worlds Apart onwards, Trail of Dead have lost their way. They made the masterpiece with Source Tags & Codes, full of a sound that tried to reach up, through a white knuckle ride of punk rock, to some higher, proggier, plane. Then they went and fucked it all up. But I don’t think that’s true, they actually reached that higher plane with Worlds Apart, and in so doing, yes, they left the punk aspects of their sound behind and embraced a pompous grandeur. But they embraced that pomp whole-heartedly and created something brilliant out of it, an equal to Source Tags & Codes.Anyway, lets talk about The Century Of Self. They return, in part, to a more rock-based approach, a stark contrast to the teetering baroque pile of So Divided, and it should be enough to bring the non-believers back into the fold. They’ve cut out a lot of the overdubs, learned the material well and then recorded much of it live, and you can really tell. ‘Far Pavillions’ tears chunks out of the scenery, Keely (quite cleanly) sings the main vocal and melody, whilst Reece’s hoarse holler cuts in and back up, drums explode everywhere like prime ST&C and there’s a throbbing rock pulse throughout. They manage to massage some grandiosity in there too with piano, backgrounded choir vocals, and a mid-song break and build.‘Isis Unveiled’ gallops along on chugging guitars, and drums that make you feel like you’re staring into a hurricane. It has an ultra-wanky keyboard melody that only adds to the warlike feeling of the track. ‘Halcyon Days’ has a half-clangy, half-jangly guitar sound, and it mines the same inspired vein that material from the second half of Worlds Apart does. It’s a gallop to glory, almost a breathless celebration. Especially when the pounding ‘oh-oh-oh-oh’ of the second chorus kicks in. The moods from those tracks are all present in ‘Fields Of Coal’, it has a catchy drunk sing-along chorus and that aspiring, montage-in-a-film feeling. If you’re familiar with ‘Let It Dive’ from WA, then this track could be its sister. Those tracks are from the first half of the album, and this style dominates that half.The second half of the album focuses more on slower paced tracks that still fill a rock quota, but have even more quieter introspective aspects. ‘Luna Park’ for example, is a ballad more than anything, with some acoustic guitar and piano. ‘Pictures Of An Only Child’ has a classic TOD style riff, but restrained, and as part of another ballad, or rather intimate, track. Childhood reminiscences are sung over a winding tension, Keely’s voice almost singer-songwriter like in tone. Of course, it ejaculates in the middle, that epic make-a-fuss tendency showing through. The last quarter or so of the album suffers slightly from short-ish tracks that create an evocative mood but don’t really fit or work in context. ‘Insatiable (One)’ and ‘Insatiable (Two)’ are piano pieces with Keely crooning over them, with an Eastern European lilt in there. ‘An August Theme’ is a 50 second instrumental dominated by a crappy sounding synths.The second half of the album does feel slightly like a let-down. Both the sequencing and the general way the tracks have been treated seem to be the problems. The quieter, slower songs haven’t been allowed to be crafted like they would have if they were on the last two albums. The production choice to avoid overdubs and play things live have streamlined the songs but doesn’t do much for them in the end.A flurry of rocking songs and big ambitions, The Century Of Self will melt your face and hopefully make you consider going back to their last two albums, and enjoying them for what they are, instead of being disappointed by what they are not. 80%...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead on MySpace