Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Reviews
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 their 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).
"Capsizing the Sea" is an atmospheric and well chosen intro, getting listeners pumped up for what comes next. The first actual song, the title track, is my favorite one from this album. It starts off with an Ascendancy-like metalcore breakdown with Matt Heafy repeatedly screaming the name of the song, then it leads to a melodic Crusade-like chorus. There's also a complicated solo in the middle, but other than that, the riffs are simple yet catchy. That's what I like!
“Inception Of The End” is a metalcore song, beginning the speedy shredding and going beyond their promised energy. The lyrics have a lot of epic singing and awesome screaming that already brought them to fame. Augusto really puts out more depth in his drumming than a regular everyday drummer, bolting through never-played-by-the-band-before blast beats. All that alone establishes Augusto as the perfect drummer for this album and the next one. "Dusk Dismantled" continues the heavy path, this time even more furious, darker, and containing only screaming.
The track “Watch The World Burn” branches out beyond their usual sound of thrash metalcore. It still keeps that style but it's more progressive track. The song has pretty much everything from heavy riffs and a progressive bridge with epic singing and screaming vocals to a melodic thrash chorus. Once again, songs like "Black" and "Built to Fall" have mainly clean singing with just a small amount of screaming. However, "A Skyline's Severance" is a polar opposite, only containing screaming, but is another song that hearkens back to the early days of Ascendancy. The build up goes from soft to fast and heavy in no time flat, before going straight into the first verse. Heafy's screaming is deeper than before, getting to the point of growling. The guitar work and drumming is really standing out to their very best. Halfway through, the tempo switches gear and things get more powerful with aggressive guitars and verses, and epic outstanding solos. "Built to Fall" is an awesome epic song that is still a good choice for a single.
"Caustic Are the Ties That Bind" Is another epic song and the only one in the standard edition to not be in the drop D-flat tuning the band used throughout the album, or at least the only one not in the D-flat minor key. The band once again tries something new with a softer uplifting bridge and solo after the powerful verses and chorus. "Forsake Not the Dream" once again unleashes the heavy drums and powerful guitars. It's a little inconsistent and repetitive, but still a better song nonetheless. "Chaos Reigns" is another strictly screaming song that still reminds me of old-school Trivium.
After all that chaos from previous songs, "Of All Those Yesterdays" is a calm and little more progressive half-ballad where they were able to develop a slightly melancholic atmosphere. Then the song fades into "Leaving This World Behind", a dark ambient outro with the same melody as the post-solo bridge in "Dusk Dismantled". Heafy shouts a politician/preacher-like speech and repeatedly says "I’m leaving this world behind, making up for all our crimes" with his voice rising up to screaming, then the outro intensely builds up before coming to a sudden stop. That abrupt ending left me bothered and confused but doesn't affect the rest of the album. If you have the special edition, you get to hear some bonus tracks put throughout the album, including the acoustic-folk interlude "Ensnare the Sun", really good songs "Drowning In Slow Motion" and "A Grey So Dark", and drop-D-infused kick-A tracks "Shattering The Skies Above" and Sepultura cover "Slave New World".
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!
Favorites: In Waves, Inception of the End, Dusk Dismantled, Watch the World Burn, A Skyline's Severance, Built to Fall, Forsake Not the Dream
Back in late 2007, when Trivium announced that they began working on their fourth album, I bet a lot of fans of their original metalcore sound were thinking, "Let me guess, another cleanly-sung thrash album? If that's what it is, I'll quit anything to do with that band." But many months have passed and Heafy hinted at the style having "more thrash influences, more screaming." Then those metalcore fans were like, "More screaming?! That sounds like the Trivium I knew!" And when the fourth album Shogun came out, it marked the return of the band's thrash-metalcore sound and their metalcore fan-base!
That's right, this album combines the thrash metal sound of The Crusade with the metalcore of Ember to Inferno and Ascendancy. That's three album styles in one! I like The Crusade but was not really into it. I think a lot of people felt the same way about The Crusade or just outright hated it, thinking it was way too thrashy. But guess what? With Shogun, you can pretty much hear all the different metal styles used by Trivium melded together in a load of diversity.
"Kirisute Gomen" (which is Japanese for "authorization to cut and leave") is a pretty effective way to begin this album. It begins with an acoustic Japanese guitar intro that is the same melody as the chorus for the epic title track, which I'll talk about later in the review. Then a gong is hit, followed by taiko drums kicking in, and I was amazed by the guitar build-up leading to the song itself drilling in some killer thrashy verses with vocals alternating between clean and growling (for the first time used in a common basis since Ascendancy), and a memorable chorus.
"Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis" is probably one of the more progressive songs of the album with super complex riffs and solos and awesome technical drumming. Heafy once again showcases his improving clean and growling vocals here. "Down From the Sky" has slightly easier riffs and lyrics that focus on more political and modern war-like themes.
"Into the Mouth of Hell We March" is another good song with great verses and catchy chorus, but the harmonized melodies are too reminiscent of Iron Maiden. "Throes of Perdition" has nice heavy main riff that is once again as progressive as Dream Theater with a catchy chorus. This would work well as a radio single, if it wasn't too intense at some parts. "Insurrection" and "The Calamity" have the melodic vocals and thrashy guitar playing from The Crusade while still keeping some sinister metalcore screams and breakdowns.
Together with the aforementioned "Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis", "He Who Spawned the Furies," "Of Prometheus and the Crucifix," and "Like Callisto to a Star in Heaven" each have different themes regarding Greek Mythology. "He Who Spawned the Furies" is about Cronos eating his children, cutting off the privates of his father Uranus, and creating the Furies. That's a pretty graphic topic, a little too much for me, but fits well with the tech-death breakdown in the middle of the song. "Of Prometheus and the Crucifix" is another thrash hit that references Prometheus' daily torment and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. "Like Callisto to a Star and Heaven" has some weak and heavy parts and is written in the perspective of Callisto, the nymph who transforms into Ursa Major.
The title track is the longest Trivium ever made at 12 minutes, though the outro is shortened a little in the special edition. It is the most epic and progressive song of the album, pretty much partly inspired by Dream Theater. The guitar work in the verses is a little sludgy, but once again contains some battling contrasts between clean vocals and screams, and the chorus is as well-done as steak. Then after a few minutes of soft vocals and soloing, the song builds up to an epic climax featuring lightning fast soloing, chaotic drums, and Heafy's vocals become more powerful than ever before. Then it's back to the chorus followed by the repetitive yet still nice outro. Here's how I would describe the song in an epic fantasy tale: 0:00-3:54 - A knight goes on a huge journey to track down an evil overlord and his army threatening to destroy the land. The knight fights some monsters on the way. 3:54-7:13 - The knight reaches the overlord's lair and goes around finding some allies willing to form an army for the knight. 7:13-7:43 - The knight and his assembled army are ready to fight the overlord's army. 7:43-9:40 - An epic battle commences between the two armies and between the knight and the overlord. 9:40-end - The overlord and his army are defeated, the knight's army wins in victory, peace is restored, and the knight heads off into the unknown.
Now back to the album, Shogun is one of the best and most diverse Trivium efforts to date, ranging from dark and heavy to modern and melodic. Right when Trivium's heavy metalcore sound was about to hit an all time low, it came back, thanks to Shogun! This is for true metalheads who will surely love this assorted mix. But I can't wait to review the band's next album In Waves, which even though its style can't top off the one for Shogun, is for me something even better!
Favorites: "Kirisute Gomen," "Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis", "Down From the Sky", "Throes of Perdition," "Insurrection," "He Who Spawned the Furies," "Shogun"
After the modern metalcore sound of their first 2 albums, Trivium decided to go on a scream-reduced thrash metal Crusade with their third album. Apparently, the band wanted to reduce the screaming because they were never actually into metalcore bands and other bands that scream. Well, considering myself a fan of screaming/growling metal genres (metalcore, melodic death metal, etc.), if I ever start my own band, I would keep that style for as long as I possibly could. But I respect their one-time move from metalcore. This change has made some things better and a little more improving, but also made a few things worse and gone downhill. I'm a nice positive reviewer, but this album has some negatives worth pointing out.
A few songs have weaker energy in comparison to others. They still have pretty solid riffs and drumming but due to lack of aggression, they don't really catch so much fire. Like I said, the vocals are also not very aggressive with very few screaming, which isn't totally bad but isn't what I wished for because of my interest in the screaming. To make some matters worse, the clean vocals in a few songs are sort of bland and lack charisma.
The album kicks off with a tremendous technical-thrash pair, "Ignition" and "Detonation". The former segues to the latter, fitting well like a glove as kind of an 2-part 8-minute suite. "Entrance Of The Conflagration" is next, and it continues the technical thrash momentum, with faster riffs and a nice breakdown and solo. The upbeat motivator, "Anthem (We Are The Fire)," is OK but sounds too Iron Maiden-ish.
"Unrepentant" is once again executed in a faster thrash fashion, followed by the darker mid-tempo song "And Sadness Will Sear". Both of those songs, along with "Entrance Of The Conflagration" and "Contempt Breeds Contamination" are lyrically based on famous killings. As a Muslim, I'm familiar with the term "Friday prayers" (used in the lyrics for "Unrepentant").
Hinting at the next album's style, musically and lyrically, is "Becoming The Dragon", a Japanese mythology-themed thrasher about the transformation from a small koi to a genuine dragon. That lyrical theme made me think of the band Dragonforce from my old epic power metal taste (good times!). "To The Rats" balls out some chaotic thrash while having a more positive chorus. "This World Can't Tear Us Apart" is the melodic 7-string "ballad" of the album. Even though it's practically radio friendly, I'm surprised that wasn't a single. "Tread The Floods" has some diminished palm muted riffs, with a nice lengthy technical solo.
The last song in the album to describe a famous killing is "Contempt Breeds Contamination," which describes the death of Adamou Diallo, who was wrongfully, brutally shot by 4 police officers who mistook him for a serial killer or something. The chorus explains too obvious, specific, graphic detail: "The four protectors fired forty-one shots, Hitting him nineteen times, Searching the body there were no weapons found, He lies with all who die in vain" Seriously, it's as if part of the chorus was plagiarized from a Wikipedia article or CNN statistics, instead of poetically or emotionally expressing more interesting opinions.
The next song "The Rising" is a slower anthem rock tune, and it's not totally bad, but many other songs in the album are better. The 8-minute instrumental title track finale is extremely impressive, with many changes in riffs, keys, and tempo. It is the most progressive, Dream Theater-ish song on the album and by the band. The swept arpeggios in the solos are so incredible. It's one of the most complex songs to play on guitar or any other instrument. If you can play this perfectly well, you would be a true guitar master.
Overall, the album has some songwriting decent to be enjoyable. And while this album isn't exactly what I would recommend for Trivium fans following the metalcore circle, die-hard Trivium fans and Metallica lovers would definitely be pleased. The band's next album Shogun (2008) would really dominate this one and the first two! Stay tuned for that in the next review....
Favorites: "Ignition," "Entrance To The Conflagration," "Unrepentant," "Becoming the Dragon," "To The Rats," "Tread The Floods," "The Crusade"
Practically every Trivium fan says that Ascendancy is their favorite album, and I somewhat agree. Ascendancy is an awesome album, but it's not my ultimate favorite one from Trivium. This is my second favorite album (In Waves is still my #1)! While Ascendancy is the band's second album, it is their first one with the legendary Roadrunner Records.
These guys once again show their stunning talent in this astonishing masterpiece that reaches higher levels than they ever thought possible. I can totally understand how successful and brilliant this album is, noticing some of the biggest highlights of the band's career. They really know how to kick their modern metalcore music into high gear.
Once again starting the album with a short intro, “The End of Everything” is a beautiful start-off with subtle keyboards and acoustic guitar parts. Then the first actual song “Rain” kicks off the metal action in a vicious bang, setting a feverish pace maintained throughout this album. Next is “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr,” one of Trivium's most popular songs, displaying their diversity. It’s loaded with as much brutality and speed as melody. "Drowned And Torn Asunder" is another diverse song mixing huge harmonies and sheer melodies with out-of-control tempos and ripping guitar work.
The title track delivers a healthy dose of melodic death metal influence of early In Flames material with an unbreakable combination of masterful guitar work and melodic overtones. The solo displays a good heap of technicality. "A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation" unleashes a pummeling double bass drum rhythm leading into a ferocious verse and a pre-chorus decimating break.
“Like Light to the Flies” is yet another classic, and one of my personal favorite songs in the album, once again showing how good this band can possibly be. I wish I have my own iPod so I can listen to this song anytime, anywhere. “Dying In Your Arms” is a slower, shorter, catcher, and more harmonious song, but still as powerful as they’ve made. It should please a wide variety of people, whether or not they're metalheads. This song is followed by “The Deceived,” another work of art with pace and overall tone that can make you stand back in awe.
"Suffocating Sight" once again contains tight riffs and a venomous combination of abrasive growls and harmonizing clean vocals. Then it carries the tune to another level before closing things off. ‘Departure’ shows some good texture, great backing vocals in the chorus, and a brutal crescendo. This track would come off well as a radio single if it didn't include that much chaos.
The epic of this record is ‘Declaration’, the album’s 7-minute final track. Intense harmonies, lightning-fast beats and solid grooves mingle together to form a driving wall of sound, basically everything metal fans can surely enjoy. The vocals range from deep growls to higher clean vocals that will strike through the heart of any metal listener.
This album establishes Trivium as one of the best modern metal bands in the world, and has elevated them to gigantic heights and greater fame. It had made them get bigger than ever before. If there are any metalheads that don't have this album in their collection, they really should. This may be considered the perfect Trivium album, but in my opinion, the only album to top it off is In Waves, yet another album to talk about in a later review. But still, congrats to Trivium for Ascendancy being a complete success!
Favorites: Rain, Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr, Ascendancy, Like Light to the Flies, The Deceived, Departure, Declaration
OK, so this is my first real review for a metal album. I just came to this website to help it grow by adding suggestions in the forums, but when I was asked if I was planning on adding some ratings and reviews, I thought "Eh, why not?" So here I am, all prepared for a journey through writing metal reviews!
Anyway, Trivium is one of my favorite bands, and the first band I started listening to in my new modern heavy metal taste. I would consider them one of the most amazing modern melodic metalcore bands out there! Their first album Ember to Inferno does not totally meet the higher standards of their later albums, but it is still made really well with their usual heavy metalcore, intense melodies, and a bit of their mainstream sound that would propel the band into fame with their next album.
The intro "Inception: the Bleeding Skies" begins the album on a hauntingly melodic note that is actually the outro "A View of Burning Empires" partly played backwards. Then it transits to “Pillars of Serpents”, a chugging churning example of heavy metalcore, still audible enough for the ears. In fact you can hear a bit of the bass clearly in the mix. I personally like the original better than the 2017/2019 re-recorded version, not sure why, maybe I just wasn't into the scream and the F-word at the end of the re-recording.
Trivium’s originally drummer is more intense than his later work. His intensely fast drumming doesn’t break through any walls, but still adds a lot of sound. However, there's a lack of bass in the mix, and the drums are pushed back to make way for the electric and bass guitars, but songs “If I Could Collapse the Masses” and “Fugue” still unleash a good amount of drumming wrath.
Speaking of "Fugue", the interesting lyrics about the apocalypse and metaphysical negation are well written in this song along with “Requiem” and “Ember to Inferno". Those songs sound very upbeat for lyrics of pain, suffering, and disappointment. Listen to the chorus of “Fugue”: “As this dream comes to its grim end, Blind pray to god to make them men, As all hopes crumble truths unveiled, The world we know now abysmal hell” See? Sounds beautiful at the same time obviously not so hopeful. Now about the vocalist, he really bolted through the album with his great mix of growls and clean vocals. And he was only 17! Man, I need to improve my own vocals.
Once again talking about the title track, during the song they unleash their upbeat yet heavy metalcore guitar riffs, similar to Shadows Fall, that not only sound good but keep the listener going through the music, not just the lyrics, including its incredible lightning-fast solo. You can expect more guitar soloing chaos in “To Burn the Eye”, once again demonstrating the abilities of the guitarists without the solo being too lengthy. Before "To Burn the Eye" is the under one-minute intro “Ashes”, which has an audible but creepy guitar sound to it that sounds like a macabre horror circus. "Falling To Grey" opens with a nice neo-classical solo. The song seems to offer more emotion and dexterity, but it is still not exactly a classic. In “My Hatred” and “When All Light Dies”, the guitars are a neat backup for the intensity of the lyrics and vocals. The guitars range from the higher notes in the solos to the lower sinister death metal-like riffs, still melodic sounding but really matches the heavy direction.
Still discussing “When All Light Dies”, the song has one of very few metalcore breakdowns in the album, whereas the solo is as sparse as the other songs in the album, with a good amount of intense technicality. And finally, the aforementioned outro of the album, "A View of Burning Empires", seguing from the fascinating outro of "When All Light Dies", is a peaceful uplifting way to end the album with classical guitars, keyboards, and acoustic guitars coming into play here.
All in all, Trivium did really well and had a lot of passion and strength in their first attempt to create their own album. This is a good album but not reaching their heights as high as the rest of the band's discography, except for the thrashy but less aggressive-sounding The Crusade and the classic heavy metal album Silence in the Snow, but those are another story....
Favorites: Pillars of Serpents, Fugue, Requiem, Ember to Inferno, To Burn the Eye, Falling to Grey, When All Light Dies