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Rating: 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.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Kirisute Gomen (06:27)
He who walks the fire breathes
He who walks the fire breathes
Unlike the rest
Living by the bloody creed
Kirisute gomen
Air of battle tasting stale
Reeks of deceit
Send the bitter straight to hell
Kirisute gomen
In their wretched guts all they want is to feed
Unending covetous hunger known as greed
As the last legion makes it's way to the skies
I can see in their eyes
They've already died
Inside, but as for the outside
I'll take their fucking heads
Quake has bred with the storm
Conceiving war
Wicked stampeding hordes
Kirisute gomen
In their wretched guts all they want is to feed
Unending covetous hunger known as greed
As the last legion makes it's way to the skies
I can see in their eyes
They've already died
Inside, but as for the outside
I'll take their fucking heads (x2)
Chorus:
I will never be what they
Want me to
I live by my own path in life
No turning back now
I won't be held down
Forced into a shallow grave built upon their empty ways
There's no turning back
There's hell to pay
such disarray
A bloodied mess
flesh masquerade
With all the blood making a flood
You made your path by crossing us
He who spits the fire seethes
All he detests
Decapitating
bloody creed
Kirisute gomen
In their wretched guts all they want is to feed
Unending covetous hunger known as greed
As the last legion makes it's way to the skies
I can see in their eyes
They've already died
Inside, but as for the outside
I'll take their fucking heads (x2)
Chorus
I will never be what they
Want me to
I live by my own path in life
There's no turning back
05 Throes of Perdition (05:54)
Blind-folded and gagged, stood waiting
With the whole world: my firing squad
At the edge of the world I'm faced out
Staring the sun right in the eye
Vultures circle above, hyenas mocking the kill
Excrement drooling down their chins
Atop the cliffs I look down, into the starving Hell-mouth
The rabid foam crashes hard on its teeth
Their mouth's salivate
Fantasizing my gruesome ending
This world looks down upon
A man who can stand on his own two feet
As they're feeding their guns: "ready, aim"
They say I'll live, if I die for their cause
Living under the rule of fellow Cro-Magnon fool
They fear who leads and will kill to stay still
Their mouth's salivate
Fantasizing my gruesome ending
This world looks down upon
A man who can stand on his own two feet
Without eating from their claws
Life feels like Hell should
But this Hell’s so cold
Pull another knife out
Stick it with the rest of them
When my back is full
Turn me around to face it
Such melancholy, burning the stars from skies
As we melt, drowning inside their bloodied eyes
Hope is ravaged, running from lacerations
Sob so heavily, we choke, then we die
Die!
Die!
Life feels like Hell should
But this Hell’s so cold
Pull another knife out
Stick it with the rest of them
When my back is full
Turn me around to face it
GO!
Sob so heavily, we choke, then we die!
11 Shogun (11:54)
Won't walk the Earth a specter
Won't hold my tongue from lashing out
This is my writ of honor
Drawn by the blood that I have shed
The beasts will soon assemble
Conjoining in their putrid flesh
Their hearts don't beat desire
They pump violence and poison
Flesh opens up, blood's retreating
Flesh opens up, blood's retreating
Death's embracing, all is ending
Death's embracing, all is ending
Time will not heal all of your pain
I cannot wait for it all to come crashing
Down
The monsters walk among us
Leeching the blood out from what's good
Infecting at transmission
Swallowing innocence from life
Our time has come to stand forth
The wretched womb from which they feed
Behold the loathsome demons
Send them into the hell they made
Flesh opens up, blood's retreating
Flesh opens up, blood's retreating
Death's embracing, all is ending
Death's embracing, all is ending
Time will not heal all of your pain
I cannot wait for it all to come crashing
Down on your face, ripping your veins out
Your insides win and kill you from within
And the seas will rise as serpents
Spawned from the mouth of Earth's surface
Soon the skies will fall fast, burning
Open wide and eat the suffering
The pulse is now quickening
Softly, it's painstaking
Look within to calm the storm
Raging inside the form
There's no turning back
For I'm witness to the changing
Take all you have brought to sacrifice
For you will lose much more
If you succeed in this battle
You still will lose so much more
The pulse is now quickening
Softly, it's painstaking
Look within to calm the storm
Raging inside the form
There's no turning back
For I'm witness to the changing
Take all you have brought to sacrifice
For you will lose much more
If you succeed in this battle
You still will lose so much more
4x
Time has come to face all evil
Now the seas rise up as serpents
Spawned from the mouth of Earth's surface
As the skies now fall fast burning
Open wide and face the suffering
The inferno spews out hell's horde
Casting the flames upon our world
As death eclipses all the light
We make our last stand, 'til death: fight
Time will not heal all of your pain
I cannot wait for it all to come crashing
Down!
Time will not heal all of your pain
I cannot wait for it all to come crashing
Down on your face, ripping your veins out
Your insides win and kill you from within
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Other reviews
By Crimson87
"This album is a watershed in Trivium’s career, standing at a crossroads between metal fame or fleeting imitation."
“The 11-minute title track ‘Shogun’ reaches levels of epicness never seen in previous works.”
By tiroHmpare
Matt Heafy plays with fire. He borrows riffs from extreme metal and elaborates cool melodies, sometimes inspiring, sometimes nauseating.
Given the crazy speed, the adrenaline would rise. Without prejudice, nor memories of the past, it would be fun.
