Chris DeLine

Recorded at El Paso, Texas’ Sonic Ranch, the seventh studio album from Austin’s …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead will be released early next month via the band’s own Richter Scale Records imprint. Unlike the group’s last outing, 2009′s The Century of Self, Tao of the Dead finds the band trimming the edges a bit in returning to a focused four-piece, rather than the six-man lineup which was used to record the band’s previous two releases. SPIN revealed the details of the album’s format in an interview late last year,

“Trail of Dead stripped down to a four-piece and recorded the album this past summer at El Paso, TX’s Sonic Ranch with Chris ‘Frenchie’ Smith (behind their 1998 debut) and Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). The LP is split into two parts, Part I and II, each recorded in a different tuning (Part I is in D, while II is in F). Part I is divided into 11 tracks or chapters, which play together play one long song, while Part II is an epic, 16-minute-long track with six movements, that’s produced by Coady. This format is an homage to frontman Conrad Keely’s childhood influences.”

Following “Summer Of All Dead Souls” which was sent out as an early feeler last year, RCRD LBL released the second track from the album earlier this week when the site dropped “Weight of the Sun.” The propulsive song teeters back and forth between Keely’s patient vocals and a hard-driving chorus which goes a long way in turning back the clock a bit. Tao of the Dead will be released February 8 and will be followed by a European tour with Rival Schools and a series of American dates with Surfer Blood leading into the summer.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]