Page 100 - Metal Hammer Issue 334 - UK (May 2020)
P. 100
ALBUM REVIEWS
Trivium: the boys are back
TRIVIUM
WHAT THE DEAD MEN SAY
ROADRUNNER
Florida’s finest hit their apex
ONCE AGAIN, TRIVIUM have some fire into bemusing experimentation or cynical Scattering The Ashes is a high-octane heavy
in their bellies following a period of dubious box-ticking. Not this time. This album rips. metal banger charged with emotion. Bending
decision-making and divisive musical output. The title track sets the tone: riffs, riffs and The Arc To Fear indulges Trivium’s extreme
While neither 2013’s David Draiman-produced more riffs, pinned together by tight, muscular metal influences with lashings of black, death
Vengeance Falls nor 2015’s drum work from Alex Bent and and Gojira-esque pick scrapes, leaving The
power metal-tastic Silence enough hooks to snare Cthulhu. Ones We Leave Behind to wrap things up in
In The Snow were stinkers Catastrophist is another riff-storm spectacular style. It’s stupidly fast, epically
(both warmly received by armed with a big-ass chorus, its heavy and boasts a commanding, empowering
critics, both producing relentless six and a half minutes performance from The Heaf, sounding like a
songs that have remained continuously dialling up the pace and man who could sing an army straight off a cliff.
setlist staples), they intensity. Amongst The Shadows And Despite the slight shift in Trivium’s song-
evidently weren’t what The Stones is an explosive clash of writing process – bassist Paolo Gregoletto
a lot of fans were looking battering blastbeats and rumbling contributed the lion’s share of the lyrics – there
for. Fears grew that they’d basslines, Matt Heafy’s snarling roar is absolutely no upending of balance or identity
scuppered their sounding like he’s spent the two and here. Quite the opposite: despite the album’s
momentum, much like a half years between records gargling many layers, this is as taught and focused as
they had a decade prior with The Crusade. hot coals. Bleed Into Me is a sombre, see-sawing Trivium have ever sounded, and at nine songs
Thankfully, 2017’s The Sin And The Sentence anthem that tugs at the heartstrings without (plus intro), it never outstays its welcome.
set things right by taking us back to basics: no flopping into overwrought bollocks, while The The Sin And The Sentence got Trivium back on
outside influences, no cheese, no nonsense, just Defiant feels like Trivs took Heart From Your the horse. What The Dead Men Say has them
full-throated heavy fucking metal. Bolstered by Hate and sent it to bootcamp. Sickness Unto You winning again. One of metal’s most beloved
an astonishing run of live shows, the message could have come from The Blackening, such is bands are on the form of their lives right now.
was clear: Trivium were on a tear again. its scope, lurching from swaying riffs into It doesn’t get much better than that.
Which brings us to What The Dead Men Say. In thrashing gallops into a tremolo-packed QQQQQQQQQQ
years gone by, this is the point where Trivium midsection into blastbeats into stomping great FOR FANS OF: Machine Head, Metallica, Gojira
would overthink their next move, side-stepping grooves into… look, there’s a lot going on. MERLIN ALDERSLADE
100 METALHAMMER.COM
