Looking back at the creatively robust but commercially feeble six years Trail of Dead spent at Interscope, it'd be easy to claim the Austin oddball geniuses were misunderstood; in reality, they were simply misplaced. Sadly, a new home hasn't reignited their spark; Century of Self, as the title suggests, is indulgent and inward, lacking the dynamism and melodiousness of their 2005 masterpiece, Worlds Apart. There's early promise of a Dead revival in rocker ''Far Pavillions'' and the epic prog of ''Bells of Creation,'' but the album's meandering second half loses us as it loses itself. B–
Download This: Listen to songs from the new album on the band's MySpace
