Three years, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t a long time. You can apparently walk round the Earth in three years if you travel at 5km/h for eight hours a day; not too bad right?…
But when your mouth remains garnished with the moreish notes of Trivium’s 2017 release, The Sin and the Sentence, hiking the circumference of the planet seems a far less arduous task than awaiting the band’s ninth full-length offering; What the Dead Men Say (WTDMS)…
Well, finally, and after much prognostication from a breadcrumb trail of teaser tracks, the shoes have been filled. Is filled the right word? Perhaps not, because WTDMS practically decimates its predecessor’s retired footwear with a colossal, well-refined, multi-faceted tracklist that could easily stand as a “best of Trivium” collection in its own right.
As you might expect, then, WDTMS is out-and-out Trivium. An insult by no means, since their 2003 debut Ember to Inferno, the band has always had a honed ear for amalgamating genres and their relative motifs with the euphonic car crash of heavy metal, thrash and metalcore birthing a sound only describable as Trivium. WTDMS sees this burning inferno and essentially dumps a keg of gasoline on the embers as instances of fraughtful death metal blast beats make their presence known, tempered through generous heaps of progressive metal woven through the fibres of WTDMS’ songwriting.
Arguably, it’s a formula that just shouldn’t work but with 17-years and nine albums under their belt, it’s not entirely surprising that Trivium are masters of their own craft. Case and point: WTDMS’ no-nonsense tracklist. With only 10 songs and just over 45 minutes there is no room for filler here, opening with the gorgeous yet invigorating instrumental intro IX that introduces us to the robust soundscape. It truly is something to behold – not quite a wonder of the world, but not far off – as the bombardment of snaps, crashes or spacious booms of Alex Bent’s drumming on thrasher-bashers like the title track or Amongst the Shadows and the Stones provides diligent support to the surmounting attack of soaring vocals rapturous string arrangements; it’s undoubtedly some of the most well-rounded drum production I’ve heard.
There’s a fair helping of meat on this sturdy bone too with the aforementioned slew of cherry-picked genre blending being more than well catered for. Throttle-neck pace thrash riffs seen on Sickness Unto You are granted their rapidity without seeming too heavy handed, the glorious classic metal solos are warm and soulful and the numerous breakdown chugs are equipped with the appropriate muscle. Essentially it’s a big banquet of various meats but Trivium generously provides every knife imaginable and even a chainsaw.
Matt Heafy, too, solidifies his position as one of the most diverse vocalists in this ugly business with a dimmer switch dynamic to his abrasiveness that allows for far greater variety across the album’s melodies. Compare the disquieting cries of Bending the Arc to Fear’s (and no I have no clue what that means either) hook to the incremental bitterness in Bleed into Me’s verses and I’m certain that further explanation will be unnecessary.
But I’m not going to hail any load of nonsense as the next Hamlet just because it’s been written in pretty felt tip pen; there has to be substance. Fortunately Heafy and co ran out of felt tips a while ago and thus I now get to gush uncontrollably like a 5-year-old seeing Spider-Man hand out balloons at a theme park because good god, WTDMS is an utter labyrinth in songwriting terms.
Some numbers, the title track or The Defiant for example, are relatively simple in verse-by-verse structure but this is blown from the waters by the numerous tempo changes, righteous solos and escalating bridges. Then, Catastrophist – the record’s peak- that progressively uncoils itself through the various guises of Trivium’s musical fingerprint or Amongst the Shadows and the Stones that gently lowers the listener into fading climax before ripping the rug from under their feet and diving straight back into the pre chorus; “how dare you get so complacent!” they bark at us.
Tempering this barrage of ferocity is Bleed Into Me and Scattering the Ashes. Short-but-sweet bangers intersplayed amongst the chaos to save the LP from appearing one-dimensional with their ruthlessly clean choruses; it’s nice to have something we can sing for once. Influences are worn on the sleeves here but in such an overbearing way, there are licks that could come straight from Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind and riffs that are note for note Gojira; written in such a way, however, that it is wholly theirs.
As well as the album does to avoid being either bloated, repetitive or half-baked, it doesn’t come off unscathed. I laud the production as much as I can but, with it, this beast carries a ball and chain. A few solos, namely from Amongst the Shadows and the Stones (sick of writing that now) sound a blown and muffled, then the entire refrain on Sickness Unto You is mixed with such ineptitude it’s barely discernible as goes for the hook on closer The Ones We Leave Behind with vocal tracks tussling for supremacy on the former and riffs cowering in a corner of noise on the latter.
So, if there was any question surrounding the longevity of this band then it has been rightfully put to rest. WTDMS is Trivium at their very best, a mighty display of what we already knew was possible, collated into one very large “I told you so”. How they will follow this up, I simply don’t know, but I know it will be another tedious wait before we find out. Maybe I’ll give that trip round Earth a crack now that I have a good soundtrack.
Rating: 8.5/10
By Alex Mace
Featured Image Credit: Roadrunner Records