It's a bit tricky to categorise ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead's Source Tags And Codes, though to start off I can at least say that, despite what the stupidly long bandname may indicate, it's definitely not post-rock, or even a major-label imitation of such. For starters, ... The Trail Of Dead have songs.

From a crude assessment, it reminds me somewhat of Sister-era Sonic Youth with the guitar fuzz hovering over most of the songs, coloured by faintly GYBE-esque segues of found shortwave radio reception and such loud ambience holding it together. But for all that, it's quite a bit more accessible than that. While the lyrics are a tad pretentious, typified by "Baudelaire", at least that's a change from ska-lite bands singing about goofing off with their pants around their ankles. The tunes generally hit the mark even as the guitars chime and churn through labyrinthine chord progressions in places, all propelled along by a tight and inventive rhythm section. With all that, ... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are a lot less ludicrous than, say, Tool or The Tea Party, take that as you will, more around the level of The Smashing Pumpkins before Billy Corgan hacked off his hair and his ability to write a decent tune.

Besides, it's hard to argue with something that sounds as great as "Relative Ways".