 
With the imminent 5th album release from Floridian
based metal giants Trivium; the metal community
has begun to stir with anxiety and doubt. The
band certainly has a lot to prove after all the
controversy and stylistic changes the band has
undergone over the past few years. Having achieved
mainstream success with “Ascendancy”
following from their inspiring debut “Ember
to Inferno”, the band had launched their
career higher than they could have ever imagined.
After such a promising start, the drastic change
in style with “The Crusade” had many
fans in uproar; critics and fans alike remarking
the band’s new sound had completely ripped
off Iron Maiden and Metallica, the band took this
in their stride with a “we don’t care
what people say, we make music for us” attitude.
The flame it seemed was dying out as the band
was at risk of losing everything they had built
over their career; until “Shogun”
hit. “Shogun” was an extraordinary
collection of material and a much needed step
in the right direction; more progressive than
their previous work but they definitely revisited
their roots and fused it with a mature technical
approach.
So “In Waves” is the latest instalment
to this soap opera that has been the bands dramatic
career thus far. After the dismissal of original
drummer Travis Smith towards the end of 2009,
drum tech Nick Augusto took over the sticks permanently
and with the already varied styles of writing
there is absolutely no way to predict how this
will turn out. The band wrote “Shattering
The Skies Above” for the Gods of War III
soundtrack with their new drummer and I’m
not going to lie, initially I despised the song;
I felt that it was a step too far, it didn’t
feel natural at all but I found in time I grew
fond of it. The exact same sentiment can be felt
in debut single “In Waves”; this time
though instead of being claimed to be ripped from
Iron Maiden, I personally cite Gojira’s
distinctive style for the introduction and choruses.
The track does show a degree of familiarity to
“Shogun” and “Ascendancy”;
with Trivium however it’s never that simple
as once again they’ve taken it and tweaked
it.
So now with the full album ready to drop, it’s
finally time to find out how this story’s
going to end. After the introduction “Capsizing
the Sea” leading into “In Waves”,
we are dealt “Inception of the End”;
this song has the perfect mix of the previous
3 albums, the aggression of “Rain”,
the sheer technicality from “Down from the
Sky” and melodic vocal lines from the likes
of “Ignition”. If every track on the
album took the approach that song has it would
definitely be a memorable one, but following this
is “Dusk Dismantled” which is a much
darker song in tone and feel. Like nothing Trivium
have written before; “Dusk Dismantled”
has really distorted ominous vocal lines, menacing
guitar work and the dual growling choruses, it’s
quite sinister but thoroughly enjoyable.
“Watch the World Burn” and “Black”
have great riffs and vocals; the vibe is softening
up by this point, whilst the previous tracks were
crushingly heavy the following ones have now focused
more on the technicality of the music to give
a variety of different material. I think I’ve
hit the nail on the head there because I have
noticed that the album is split into parts for
the band to be able to include something for everybody
on here, respectable decision and thus far no
major complains; until “Caustic are the
Ties that Blind” and “Built to Fail”.
These 2 song – it may be unintentionally
but none the less - have too much similarity to
Bullet For My Valentine’s music (“Built
to Fail” even has an interlude that sounds
almost identical to “Hearts Burst Into Fire”).
The Bullet For My Valentine comparison continues
with “Forsake not the Dream”, I think
more than anything it’s the guitar tone
on some of the riffs and fills that just scream
BFMV. It’s just not Trivium! Trivium’s
material has always had chunky riffs and strangely
infectious aggressive vocals; the second half
of the album just to me seems to be lacking in
that department which is a little bit disappointing.
At the end of it all we have some outstanding
songs; however there are some that just feel like
lesser versions of previous efforts and others
that have strayed off the path from the band were
good at creating. All in all I doubt this is the
album that will recapture the lost fans or the
doubting critics but it’s a decent effort
on the way to discovering when to settle with
a set sound after experimenting.
4/5
Review by James Webb
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