When a hardcore thrash metal band collides with a hard rock inspiration, the results can be varied, sometimes even leading the band to a murky void between genres. Luckily, Trivium was given one of the best.
David Draiman, former lead singer to the popular hard rock band Disturbed and current singer of the newly formed band Device, has taken the Florida-natives under his wing producing and writing for their sixth studio album “Vengeance Falls.”
Draiman’s influences and overseeing can be heard throughout the album, with no stone left unturned. Each song is finely crafted with enough care to fill an entire stadium, with its high performance and changing riffs rarely slowing down.
That said, hardcore Trivium fans may be turned away by this new adaptation, the thrash is still present but during some songs, vocalist Matt Heafy takes one too many pages out of Draiman’s book.
Instrumentally, Trivium is everything you would expect from a thrash metal band, Corey Beaulieu’s guitar races at lightning speeds, Paolo Gregoletto’s bass dances up and down and Nick Augusto runs marathons on his double bass pedals.
The first track, “Brave This Storm,” has Heafy holding notes melodically Draiman-style, with very little screaming present throughout the song. This track pays homage to the new direction Trivium has headed in, a path familiar to the likes of Machine Head and All That Remains. These new flavor of songs could gather a much broader audience, be blasted through mainstream radios and introduce many new people to the sheer power of Trivium.
Head bangers don’t fret, there are plenty of heavy songs deep within the album. Heafy stretches his wind pipe in the seventh track “Through Blood and Dirt and Bone,” screaming the chorus in his powerfully dark manner. The sixth track, “At the End of This War,” has a guitar breakdown strong enough to motivate any listener’s head to bob up and down.
Trivium may have had their precision honed and direction focused, but Draiman seems to have come at a cost. Disturbed fans and newcomers can rejoice, though Trivium has lost a slight edge in their heavy roots.
Grade: B
