“From Ember to Inferno”
I mentioned last week that Near Ruin’s No End might be the album that got me back into metalcore. As self-fulfilling prophecies go, it turns out I was right. This past week my iTunes playlist been dominated by the likes of As I Lay Dying, August Burns Red, Killswitch Engage and All That Remains. For me, though, there is only one metalcore band that has a lasting grasp on my heart. 6 albums and 3 drummers later, that band is the one and only Trivium. They’ve been hailed as the next Metallica, and I’m inclined to partially agree. Unlike, say, Five Finger Death Punch, Trivium aren’t afraid to change their style from each album, making each unique and distinguishable from one another. Inevitably, when bands take risks inconsistency becomes a factor. Like Metallica, their musical career has been a fascinating roller coaster ride in terms of quality, from the soaring highs of Shogun (2008) to the “what on earth were they thinking” lows of The Crusade (2006). My opinions from worst to best are as follows:
- Vengeance Falls (2013): I think what makes this album worse than it is is how much I loved 2011’s In Waves. I expected Vengeance Falls to be my favorite metal album of 2013. Instead what I got was frontman and rhythm guitarist Matt Heafy trying his best to sound like David Draiman. No. Just no. Disturbed is on indefinite hiatus because no one even wants to listen to actual David Draiman. The guitar work is at least impressive, and taken in parts (the intro from “Strife”, the breakdown from “Through Blood and Dirt and Bone”, and the outro from “Brave the Storm”) there is enough material to make a solid medley. The rest of it just bleeds mediocrity and cheesiness. Vengeance Falls is a disappointing album at best, and a waste of time at worst.
Tracks to listen to: To Believe, Through Blood and Dirt and Bone, Strife.
Tracks to skip: Just about everything else.
Buy it:
- The Crusade (2006): I have no idea what was going on here. When the bonus track “Vengeance” is better than all but one of the songs that actually made the album, something has gone wrong. The one saving grace for The Crusade is the 7-minute instrumental masterpiece of a title track. Corey unleashes his inner custodian about 6 minutes in with a delightful sweep picking section that’s almost worth listening to the entire rest of the album to hear. It seems like even Trivium would rather forget this stage in their career, as songs from The Crusade, with the exception of “Anthem (We Are the Fire)”, are rarely included in live sets.
Tracks to listen to: Vengeance, The Crusade, Tread the Floods.
Tracks to skip: To the Rats, Detonation, and everything else.
Buy it:
- Ember to Inferno (2003): So raw, so pure, so angry. Matt Heafy was only 17 years old and ripe with angst when the songs were written and recorded. I was apprehensive about putting Ember here in the list, as the actual the production on Ember to Inferno is pretty appalling (Heafy’s voice, in particular, is borderline horrendous). Live, however, tracks from this record are as strong as any in Trivium’s extensive catalogue.
Tracks to listen to: From Ember to Inferno, If I Could Collapse to the Masses, Falling to Grey.
Tracks to skip: Pillars to Serpents
- Ascendency (2005): Ascendency defined my metalcore phase (which lasted a whole 3 months back when I was a young, angsty lad). There is no shortage of metalcore anthems that spawned from this album. “Like Light to Flies”, “Rain”, “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr”, and “Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation” all ooze energy and quality. The infamous misheard lyric video “Boat, Rudder, Strange Mountain” was also born from this album, which is amazing for completely non-musical-related reasons. It became so popular that Trivium even has a T-shirt for it.
Tracks to listen to: Rain, Like Light to Flies, Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr, Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation.
Tracks to skip: None of them.
Buy it:
- Shogun (2008): If The Crusade is Trivium’s St. Anger, Shogun is Trivium’s Master of Puppets. Widely believed to be their best and most technical album, diehard Trivium fans are disappointed again and again when every subsequent release isn’t Shogun 2. You can’t blame the fans, though. Shogun is unapologetically heavy, and makes highly liberal use of 7-string guitars. The song “Shogun” itself stands out as a musical roller coaster journey from the heaviest to the bluesiest Trivium has ever been. I’m also a huge fan of the strong lyrical focus on ancient Greek mythology: Scylla, Charybdis, Prometheus and Callisto all make their appearances. For me, these factors helped Shogun distinguish Trivium as more than just a young mainstream metal band.
Tracks to listen to: Shogun, Like Callisto to a Star in Heaven, Down From the Sky, Throes of Perdition.
Tracks to skip: None of them.
Buy it:
- In Waves (2011): Controversially, I consider this to be the peak of Trivium’s career thus far, over even the great and mighty Shogun. I consider In Waves to be one of the strongest examples of a near perfect album; a perfect harmony of the br00tz and the melodic. “Capsizing the Seas/In Waves” is one of the most epic intros to any album released in recent memory. “Of All These Yesterdays” and “Grey So Dark” are beautifully crafted, soulful tracks that stand in complete contrast to the likes of “Dusk Dismantled” and “Chaos Reigns”, neither of which contain a single cleanly sung note. No matter which breed of metal you’re a fan of, on In Waves there is a song for you. I personally love them all.
Tracks to listen to: All of them.
Tracks to skip: None of them.
Buy it:
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