March 2021 Feature Release – The Revolution Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Revolution has been nominated by shadowdoom9. It's the 2011 fifth album from Orlando-based melodic metalcore outfit Trivium entitled "In Waves".

https://metal.academy/releases/5352

Thanks Daniel for including this awesome album as this month's Revolution featured release! As soon as I think of ideal submissions for next month's The Fallen and The Guardians featured releases, they shall come to you privately. For now, here's my summary as a sneak peek for anyone to see if they're up for the listening challenge:

You know why I chose In Waves as my favorite Trivium album? Well during my original epic power metal taste a few years ago, I found the music video for the song "In Waves" on TV, then about a year later, the friend I told you about in my first forum thread introduced me to a heavier modern side of metal starting with this band. This album reminds me of how much I owe my friend for bringing my metal taste to a new era. But I can't simply say that this is my favorite album for my own personal reasons, that's so shallow! Fortunately, there's a lot of awesome stuff in this album that makes this Trivium album my ultimate favorite. After the melodic thrash The Crusade and the progressive thrash metalcore Shogun, In Waves marks the band's return to the metalcore roots of Ember to Inferno and Ascendancy. This is also their first album with drummer Nick Augusto, who replaced original drummer Travis Smith (not to be confused with heavy metal cover artist Travis Smith). Augusto has brought the drumming in Trivium to higher, faster levels. Instead of all songs having a balance between singing and screaming, a few songs have only screaming while a few other songs have just singing with very little screaming. I love both vocal styles and that's a new and less boring strategy (not that it was ever boring). You get to hear all that along with simply catchy riffs in 11/13 glorious songs (or 15/18 songs in the special edition). After hearing this album, I now see what an awesome astonishing album it is, and it's nice to once again hear the band's original metalcore sound along with a small bit of their epic progressive side. This album has surely brought in new fans and kept longtime fans. Anyone listening to metal for the first time? I highly suggest starting with this album. Trust me, you'll like it. Trivium, you da best!

5/5 (probably even 6/5)

Recommended songs: "In Waves", "Inception of the End", "Watch the World Burn", "Built to Fall", "Forsake Not the Dream"

For fans of (this album is so perfect that it can be for everyone, but just in case...): All That Remains, Lamb of God, 2000s Dark Tranquillity

Consistent almost to a fault. Even as Trivium continue to evolve with each subsequent album, they still can't figure out how to mix the bass properly. If they could ever figure that out, they might just have a truly transcendent album on their hands. As it is, In Waves is the bands most commercially and critically successful album, and it has some of metal's most iconic riffs of the 2010s. But it isn't their best. For me, I still prefer The Crusade. 

7/10

OK, so I'm vaguely aware that there is such a thing as melodic metalcore but, to be honest, I have never felt any urge to delve into it and I've kept it very much at arms length. Melo-death and all those -core hybrids leave me cold, so if that's your thing then good luck to you but it's not a scene an old geezer like me is able to get excited about - I'll leave it to the kids thanks. Consequently, I went into this not expecting very much at all, playing it at work while I tried to do something useful. But, you know what? Damn me if this wasn't just too distracting with it's catchy little tunes! I'm listening to it again while I write this (at home, later) and although it hasn't changed my world view or anything, I've got to confess I actually quite enjoyed it. I'm still unlikely to explore metalcore much further but on those occasions when I fancy something of a change I can easily see myself returning to this. File under"pleasantly surprised".

3.5/5

It's been quite a long while since I've listened to In Waves, and I've always thought highly of Trivium in general since they were one of the only Metalcore bands I found during my high school days that I could stomach. I fell off from listening to them pretty quickly, especially after their disappointing Silence In The Snow, but I honestly enjoyed going back to this album. The impressive part is how many of these songs I actually remembered while going through, which is a testament to the "catchy little tunes" like Sonny said. I was instantly able to place "In Waves", "Inception of the End", "Watch the World Burn", "Forsake Not the Dream", and a few others once they came on. 

I think for me it goes on for a bit too long; I get tired of the style by the time I get to "Chaos Reigns", but In Waves will still be one of the staple albums for me that embodies the kind of Metalcore sound that I like without going full-on Converge style. The songs are incredibly catchy and memorable but still aggressive, chuggy, and technical. There's a contrast between harsh and clean vocals, but the clean vocals aren't high-pitched and whiny and the harsh vocals aren't a guttural  mess of nothing. 

Although I don't think that In Waves is an essential part of the Metalcore timeline, I respect the hell out of Trivium for writing something that hits the perfect middle-ground between accessibility and edginess. 

3.5/5

This one has really tested me. It's taken me much further outside of my musical comfort zone than even some of the recent European power metal feature releases have to be honest. I mean I'd certainly heard the odd Trivium track here & there previously (particularly during "The Revolution" Spotify playlist creation process) but I never quite realized just how commercially accessible their sound was until now. Let's be completely transparent here.... a fair chunk of "In Waves" is a lot closer to Linkin Park than it is to "Master Of Puppets" & I even found myself making comparisons to Nickelback at times which isn't something that any self-respecting metal band would usually be comfortable with. But having said that, there's certainly a place for a poppier brand of metal when it's done well & it's done well here.

Colin Richardson's production job really is the player of the match for "In Waves" because he gives a lot of this material more grunt than it actually deserves. The performances & execution are outstanding but if you analyze many of these tracks in detail you'll find that there's not all that much substance. There's definitely a case for some of these tracks having been needlessly extended (see the last minute & a half of the title track for example) but in general everything seems to be in the appropriate place. It's a real credit to Richardson that he's managed to take such simple & accessible song-writing & make it into a fairly decent metal record.

For a release that's generally regarded as melodic metalcore, there's actually not very much hardcore on offer here. It's much more of a combination of commercial heavy metal & melodic death metal in my opinion but the vocals & breakdowns see it hanging onto its -core tag for dear life. I'm just not so sure that too many punks are gonna be jumping onboard the Trivium train based on this offering. Despite the screamy vocals & occasional blast beat, Disturbed & Metallica's "Black Album" seem like more appropriate counterparts so no one should really be claiming "In Waves" under the extreme metal banner. In fact, the vocals are probably the weakest part of the album for me as I'm not all that big on the generic nature of the screamed delivery & the clean stuff tends to be... welll... pretty Linkin Park like really (no offence to Linkin Park who are sitting in my playlist for the coming week) which only exacerbates the pre-existing feeling that I'm listening to a Stock, Aitken & Waterman version of modern metal.

At the end of the day though, I rate releases on how much I enjoy listening to them & I'd be lying if I said that I didn't find a fair bit of enjoyment in the majority of "In Waves". Sure there are a few duds thrown in here & there (see "A Skyline's Severance", "Built To Fall" & particularly the radio-friendly closer "Of All These Yesterdays") & there aren't really all that many genuine highlight tracks but there's enough high quality metal here to keep me interested even if I don't find my head bopping up & down all that often.  Thankfully I just love a well produced & tightly performed metal record & can look past Trivium's failings for the most part.

For fans of Bullet For My Valentine, As I Lay Dying & Shadows Fall.

3.5/5