TRIVIUM: The Crusade (Roadrunner)
By Fizz
Rating: 7.5
You know you’re starting to get old when you start seeing bands who are younger than you are. Notice I said “bands” as opposed to “groups” or “pop stars.” I’m talking about bands who play all their instruments, write all their own songs, and even sing live instead of lip-sync’ing. Well, I’m now 26, and the guys in Trivium are, on average, a good five years my junior. I was already in college when Matt Heafy took time out from wondering when he’d finally grow some pubic hair, and formed this Orlando-based metal outfit.
Why do I bring this up? Hell, I dunno. Everybody else seems to, and I wanted to get the intro out of the way.
At any rate, for their third album, Trivium offer up a heaping portion of thrash-metal goodness that is decidedly old-school in flavor. Where previous albums contained more than a few metalcore stylings, including the dreaded, tone-deaf screaming vocals, The Crusade is largely and refreshingly free of any such defects. Just about every review I’ve read compares the band to old-school Metallica, with many claiming Matt Heafy as a dead ringer for James Hetfield, with his new, growl-free vocal style. Personally, I would put him closer to Testament’s Chuck Billy, and any comparisons with early Metallica, be they musical or vocal, are a bit of a stretch. Instead, the music puts me in mind of Act III-era Death Angel, with some occasional Shadows Fall tinges. There are riffs galore, and the guitars are clean and crisp, never over-distorted or grating. The power chords snag your ear like a careless barber, and the solos shred in the classic thrash style. Come to think of it, I do hear a bit of Kirk Hammett in the leads. The drums are tight as the proverbial cat’s ass, and manage the many time shifts flawlessly. Really, I can’t complain about the music itself at all.
The vocals and lyrics are a different story. Heafy’s newfound semi-melodic approach is a huge improvement over the harsh, teenager-throwing-a-tantrum style of old. No arguing that. But I can’t help noticing that several songs have a sing-songy, nu-metal quality to their choruses. Songs like “And Sadness Will Sear,” “To The Rats,” and “Unrepentant” have a bit of an anthemic, Disturbed-like sound in places, minus the lisp and the baboon-calls, luckily. I guess you really can’t escape your environment, can you? I wonder if the age of the band might have something to do with it. Sure, they may steep themselves in classic metal, but much of that music was released while they were busy finger-painting, and like it or not, they came of age in the era of Godsmack and the Deftones. Maybe it’s not fair of me to say that, but I can’t help but wonder.
Anyway, there are plenty of good songs to be found here. “Detonation” starts off with a Maiden-like swing, before shifting into full thrash mode for its second half, while ‘Becoming The Dragon” begins in a similar vein, but downshifts into a cool, sludgy ending. Meanwhile, the pompously-titled “Entrance of the Conflagration” rolls along in fine Shadows Fall fashion, with plenty of precise double-bass to help give it that “modern metal” feel. Album opener “Ignition” is hard not to like, despite the aforementioned nu-metally something-or-other in the chorus. At the other end of the album, the closing title track is an eight-minute instrumental full of intriguing time changes and riffs, while still managing to hold together and not sound disjointed like so many long instrumentals do.
Sprinkled in between are a few rather cheesy “anthem”-type songs. In fact, one of them is even called “Anthem (We Are the Fire).” This one is a blatant attempt at a “crowd-pleaser,” right down to the call-and-response “Whoa-oh, whoa-oh!” part after the solo. I can hear this being drawn out for minutes on end during live shows. In the studio, they might’ve done well to trim that section down a bit. But goddamn, is the song infectious, or what! Elsewhere, “The Rising” has some lyrics that would make Judas Priest cringe: “So raise your voices with me, and sing this song of unity!” Heafy rasps. “Raise your hands up with me, and hold this moment eternally.” But again, it’s so catchy, you almost want to do it! In “To The Rats,” Heafy shouts “Don’t fuck with this!” in exactly the same tone Phil Anselmo used over a decade ago, and then switches to a David Draiman-like whine as he promises to “break every bone in your face if you mess with my life.” And then there’s “This World Can’t Tear Us Apart.” As you might guess, the lyrics seem tailor-made for it to be the token “rock song” at the prom, although the music, giving up only a fraction of an inch, ensures that it won’t be gracing too many high-school gyms in the near future.
The hell of it is, it is these anthems that tend to be the catchiest tracks on the album, and the ones you’re most likely to remember.
And while we’re on the subject of lyrics … they’re not very good. Again, this might be attributed to youthful na`ivet`e, but a lot of these lyrics come off like the scribblings of a teenager whose been watching the evening news for a few weeks and now fancies himself to have a social conscience. Several songs are based on specific news events, like the woman who drowned her five children (“Entrance of the Conflagration”) or instances of police brutality (“Contempt Breeds Contamination”). Singing about current events is nothing new in music, of course, and particularly in the sometimes self-importantly socially-aware world of thrash. However, Heafy’s lyrics are often just way too topical, and the earnestness with which they’re delivered is almost laughable at times. Trivium needs to get better at being serious, or stop trying so hard.
In their review, the ever-clueless Rolling Stone writes, “… Still, when Heafy and Co. rip into Bush and Co. for their Iraq fuck-up … they sound like one of the few contemporary metal bands that matter.” Oh, is that right? And why is that? Is it because they write good songs, or play their asses off? Or is it just because they share your political beliefs? For the everlasting record, when Trivium rips into Bush and Co. on songs like “Ignition,” they don’t say one damn thing that hasn’t already been said by countless bands before them. Whether you support the war or not, this topic has been flogged mercilessly in music. I’m ready to bring all the troops home tomorrow, if it would mean these puffed-up musicians will shut the fuck up.
Having said all that, though, I have to admit that I like The Crusade a lot--while it’s playing, that is. After I take the CD out, I do tend to have trouble remembering more than a few songs. This might be due to there really being no letup, from start to finish, through all thirteen tracks. A bit more variety might help in the future. But again, if you like riff- and hook-based thrash metal with a decidedly traditional feel, and maybe you can’t deal with the harsh vocals so many bands use today, this might just be the album for you, bucko.
Best Songs: “Detonation,” “Anthem (We Are The Fire),” “The Crusade”
Worst Songs: “And Sadness Will Sear,” “This World Can’t Tear Us Apart”
