Suddenly, a ringing riff dissolves the reverie, drum taps escalate to car-crash volume, and the instruments reach a chaotic crescendo. With whiplash-inducing abruptness, the song reaches a churning climax, thrusting Allen's defiantly tuneful vocals into the melodic maelstrom. It's a spectacular six-minute cycle, one that flirts with extreme volume and brutal percussive violence without ever leaving the pop-realm spectrum.
Worlds Apart's jarring track-sequencing is startling. Delicate chamber-pop ditties precede impossibly loud outbursts, and the stark contrast flatters both forms. Some of Trail of Dead's repetitive patterns can be so mesmerizing that they conjure dreamlike states, from which listeners will awake with a start, amazed that only a few seconds have elapsed.
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