Trivium
Shogun

THE REVIEW

Heafy Metal. This is what Trivium are, the little band that is so loved/hated and that some want to properly define as Thrash/Heavy Metal (!), while others associate them with a genre (certainly more suited to them) called Metalcore.

Now, Trivium are neither of the two. They don't play thrash, and everyone knows this since thrash resides elsewhere; everyone except dear Matt Heafy, the head of Trivium, who, full of himself, even expects his albums to be remembered in the history of metal. They don't even play metalcore since they themselves attempt, in a very sneaky and damned hypocritical manner, to emulate the old thrash monsters - and a metalcore band plays metalcore, not the hyped-up copy of thrash.

Hence the definition of Heafy Metal, a hybrid genre exclusively owned by Trivium that in its meaning implies all the categories of degrading pseudo-'insert adjective at will'. Trivium play pseudo-thrash with a pseudo-tough guy attitude, revealing themselves instead as kids who indeed know how to play (I'll be sure not to affirm the contrary), but with a wrong approach bordering on presumptuous; Trivium want to become something much bigger than themselves.

But let's move on to the more technical aspects, particularly this "Shogun," released about a week ago: Trivium's music is increasingly polished and perfectly calculated (thanks to the impeccable production), the songs generally hover around six minutes and include enormous quantities of very, very melodic riffs that cause the band to lose part of their (little) credibility, and finally, the main element that roasts the eardrums stands out: Heafy's voice.

Somebody cut Heafy's vocal cords. His voice is one of the most fake I've ever heard, as it does nothing but forcibly imitate the old-school Hetfield, the one from "Master of Puppets" and "Ride the Lightning," making it irritating and sickly sweet; in short, he plays the classic part of the stepson who tries to follow, unsuccessfully, the "father's" footsteps. Too bad that Matt doesn't limit himself to poorly copying voice and riffs: in this "Shogun" there are very frequent parts of pseudo-angry screams that are casually alternated with catchy little tunes in clean voice worthy of a punk rock band, yet hidden under piles of riffs as pumped up as they are, so to speak, tacky.

In short, all this is certainly not pleasant to listen to.

The record only saves itself in a few spots, where, for example, some pleasant solos pop out (like in "Kirisute Gomen" and "Insurrection") which, however, end up sinking into the general mire of the album, thus resulting in being uglified and a bit out of place. A couple of times the 'tacky' atmosphere manages to be quite epic and thus overall acceptable ("Of Prometheus and the Crucifix"). The rest of the songs reveal themselves to be flat and similar in form, meaning clean/scream vocals, big riffs, solos: a clumsy collage that offers the same formula for over an hour. The guys play but without direction and without making a single song truly memorable as Metallica, Megadeth, and so many others did in their time - alas, indeed, other times.

If you really want to listen to decent Trivium, get "Ember to Inferno" or, at most, "Ascendancy." With this "Shogun," they have definitively lost, but for some reason, I have the feeling they will persist proudly for quite a while.