Album Review: Trivium – Silence In The Snow

JT October 6, 2015 201 Comments 145 views 0 likes

Eo Ire Itum. In Latin this phrase is loosely defined as “to advance, or progress”, which is a fitting way to describe the Florida based group Trivium over their 15+ year span. Throughout their musical career the band has incorporated many different stylistic components, elements, and influences into their sound (which seem to be limitless). I referenced Latin before not only because the phrase so accurately personified what the band is capable of, but also because the bands moniker itself is Latin. Trivium means “the place where three roads meet”, or in the bands case, a mix of sounds and genres.

In the early years of the band their modus operandi was more focused around thrash metal and metalcore. Albums like Ember to inferno and Ascendancy had the fast paced double kick and galloping guitar strums. Heafy had a healthy mix of guttural screams, and many would compare his raspy cleans to that of thrash metal icon James Hetfield. This comparison wasn’t completely out of this world considering Metallica has been cited as one of the bands many influences, which also included (but weren’t limited to) Dream Theatre, Slayer, Pantera, Black Sabbath, and one of Heafy’s favorites; Iron Maiden. The spirit of their love for the classic metal was channeled more precisely on the third album The Crusade. This record saw the band stepping away from the chugs, breakdowns, and screams of metalcore, and ramping up on the thrash metal/classic rock vibes. It would be another three albums before they returned to this favored sound. Shogun, In Waves, and Vengeance Falls all had the growls and hard-hitting breakdowns, but you could see and hear the fact that the band was yearning for something else.

In 2014 Matt Heafy suffered a minor travesty when he blew out his voice at the Rock On The Range tour. He was ordered by doctors to rest his vocal chords which resulted in the cancellation of many tour dates. Heafy adopted a strict vocal chord conditioning regiment to help re-strengthen and maintain his vocal abilities. This was in large taught to him by Disturbed’s frontman, David Draiman, who is also known for some crazy tactics when it comes to his vocal acrobatics. This accident was one (albeit a small) reason which lead to the bands seventh LP Silence In The Snow.

“Silence In The Snow is a masterpiece of metal and the beginning of Trivium’s greatest chapter yet.”

This album is reminiscent of 2006’s The Crusade in the sense that the band returned to purely clean singing, entirely getting rid of any growls, howls, or screams. The overall tone that’s set though is something the band hasn’t really done before. The album has a very classic rock feel to the style and overall sound of the music. You can easily see the influences of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, but the album is not without teeth. It still has some of that classically heavy Trivium swagger with the edgier and more aggressive tracks. Some of which could be more akin to the likes of Killswitch Engage or Lamb Of God. Guitarist, Corey Beaulieu was quoted as saying , “The inspiration for the record was from our listening to our favorite bands…Iron Maiden, Dio…we felt like metal bands really don’t make records like that anymore, unless you’re a band from that era; you just don’t have the uniqueness in the sound and the songs…it’s got the feel of classic metal, but also it sounds very modern.” This sums up Silence In The Snow quite accurately, but doesn’t limit in any shape or form.

This album is insanely catchy, much like the classic metal songs of yester-years. Choruses You can’t help but sing-along to (“The Thing That’s Killing Me”,” Silence In The Snow”), tracks that’ll soothe the angry demons swimming in your head (“Dead And Gone”, “Beneath The Sun”. “Blind Leading The Blind”), and a song or two that feels a little more like a ballad to aid your broken soul (“Until The World Goes Cold”). Trivium know who they are, and have never expressed that better than they have with this record. With Matt Heafy’s vocals being more fine tuned than ever before, and the band performing BETTER than a well oiled machine, the group have more than proved they’re a force to be reckoned with. Silence In The Snow is a masterpiece of metal and the beginning of Trivium’s greatest chapter yet.

Trivium – Silence In The Snow [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Subscribe: http://bit.ly/TriviumYT Trivium’s music video for ‘Silence In The Snow’ from the album, Silence In The Snow – available now on Roadrunner Records.