Listening to any …And You Will Know Us by the Trail Dead song is like taking a dark mystical journey to a faraway land filled with bearded women and fire-breathing acrobats. With their new album, Worlds Apart, the band still embraces their epic rock orchestrations, but the sound is much more lucid and direct, focusing on the immediate pressures of success and the state of culture.

Formed in 1994 in Austin, Texas by Jason Reece and Conrad Keely, the band’s major success came with the release of Source Tags & Codes in 2002 with an unheard of 10.0 rating from Pitchfork Magazine. But beyond their skilled studio chops, the band is one of the most exciting and entertaining live acts out there. Their notoriety for mayhem and destruction on the stage ensures a packed venue every time. If a guitar isn’t shattered or an amp punched out, it’s not a real Trail of Dead performance. Although the group claims they’re settling down, Worlds Apart proves that Trail of Dead remains a musically ambitious and dynamic rock band. Veering away from their grungy punk roots, the band has embraced a more melodically tight sound. The themes have also changed; lyrically, the songs are much more personal. The idealism and abstraction of their earlier albums is exchanged for a more relevant commentary on the demands of producing great art and maintaining an acceptable public image. The struggles are real and one feels them in Worlds Apart’s intense and confessional composition.