Reviews list for Trivium - Silence in the Snow (2015)

If you're ever a metalcore/death metal screamer/growler, let me give you some advice: Scream properly. Unfortunately, Matt Heafy did not listen to that advice, and as a result, ended up blowing his voice during a performance. That's what resulted in this album not having any harsh vocals and becoming more of a classic heavy metal album with Heafy doing entirely clean singing in an attempt to sound like Dio, Lemmy, or Midnight (3 fallen guardians of heavy metal). I think it was good that I explained the whole reason so that fans of the band's thrash-metalcore sound wouldn't be like, "What the fridge?! That sounds nothing like Trivium! Who died and made this a Trivium album?" And yes, I might have overreacted a little about this album at the end of my previous review. At least some songs in this album are still nice, I mean the band is still writing good songs and they have to keep up that streak, right?

Some songs here are still consistent, and even with Heafy's vocal limits at the time, this kind of vocal usage helped the band have a more unified sound that much of their past material. They still managed to make Silence in the Snow a punchy album with riffs as heavy as in their previous albums. Any fan of the band's thrash-metalcore sound can undermine this album, but the music still has the potential to really packing some punches.

The album begins with "Snøfall", an orchestral intro orchestrated and composed by Ihsahn, who is best known for being the vocalist/guitarist of Norwegian symphonic black metal band Emperor (the only other reason for me to hear of Ihsahn is because of his guest vocals in a few songs by progressive metal band Leprous). Then in comes the opening highlights, "Silence in the Snow" and "Blind Leading the Blind", both casting a great surge of immediacy and riffing. "Dead and Gone" sees Heafy unleashing his inner Shadows (M. Shadows) in an amazingly gritty but still clean vocal performance.

The songs that are good but the vocals are too subdued, especially in the choruses, due to absolutely no screams, include "The Ghost That's Haunting You" and "Pull Me Into the Void", which don't quite have the anthem vibe you might expect. Same goes for the plodding "Until the World Goes Cold" and "Rise Above the Tides", the latter song being faster but I still think works better with some screams.

Things heat up better with "The Thing That's Killing Me", which has greater uptempo energy and guitar work despite no screams, and "Beneath The Sun", a mid-tempo driving surge with strong but clean vocals. "Breathe in the Flames" is an uneven closer, but what better way is there to end this album?

Ultimately, Silence is the Snow is not really an album that would have higher points than other Trivium albums, but it still has good consistent quality and vital inspiration to be unique and enjoyable even with poorly limited skills. Even without their true sound, it's nice to hear Trivium still have what it takes and keep stepping forward. But this doesn't mean the end of screaming, something better and more powerful will come next time....

Favorites: Silence in the Snow, Blind Leading the Blind, The Thing That's Killing Me, Beneath the Sun