Back to dropping bodies and tracks after a six-year lull in the action, Austin’s …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead’s newest release X: The Godless Void and Other Stories reaches across time and space to find its happy place.

The dexterous post-hardcore outfit’s 10th full-length studio album celebrates lead singer Conrad Keely’s return from a self-imposed holiday in Cambodia with an emotive bundle of songs that are capable of closing any distance. Rested, reunited and ready to throw down their painterly brand of progressive alt-punk, Keely and co-founder drummer/guitarist/vocalist Jason Reece have created a sweeping opiate for the masses with their latest offering.

Turning pages on sun-faded memories and circling their subjects like chaotic constellations, they generate grand impressionistic landscapes on “All Who Wander” and “Something Like This.” Further along, the energetic title cut, “Who Haunts the Haunter,” and “Through the Sunlit Door” slice through thorny heart brambles with laser-synth precision.

Spiraling into focus, the electronically enhanced “Gravity” brings the orchestral crescendo to a head, proving that pianos and violins are the tools of revolution. Energetic yet tactful in its approach, the glorious madness of this LP slides in under the radar before dropping a thought bomb on your cognitive ground zero.

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