Review Summary: Trivium's experimental phase finally pays off, at least for the most part.
Trivium has certainly been in a lot of trouble these past couple of years. It all first came when
Vengeance Falls received a less than warm reception from audiences. Then Matt Heafy ended up blowing out his voice which resulted in several shows getting cancelled. Not long after, drummer Nick Augusto left the band and Mat Madiro ended up replacing him afterwards. Then there was the supposed final nail in the coffin when Trivium announced they would turn to a completely different direction that no one wanted them to go on; no screaming, more melody, and a softer tone in the sound. Overall, everything was set in place for a possible meltdown of a band that many people once loved. However, with everything that could’ve gone wrong with
Silence in the Snow, they managed to pull it off somehow.
Now let me be clear,
Silence in the Snow is far from Trivium’s best work. If anything, it’s completely understandable as to why people would consider it to be their weakest effort to date. There is very little of the speedy, thrashy, Metallica-esque sound that everyone relates them to. Pretty much everything is toned down to a bare minimum of what you would expect. The instrumentation isn’t as glorified with long and complex solos mixed with hard, heavy riffs and a double bass drum to top it all off. Whether it’s the length of the tracks or the overall sound on the record, it’s all been cut down or changed. And you know what, kudos.
Put simply, this record isn’t so much as Trivium “giving up”. Instead, it’s an attempt to deliver what they can with the limitations that have hit them, and for what it is, it’s not as bad as one would expect. Sure some tracks are mediocre at best (‘Pull From the Void’ first comes to mind with its lack of memorable riffs), but
Silence in the Snow is essentially taking all of the weakest parts of almost every Trivium album and putting them into focus. A great example is “The Ghost That’s Haunting You”, in which the choruses are executed better, the melodies flow better, and of course Matt Heafy, despite blowing his voice last year, does a great job of carrying the whole album through.
Regardless of what you think of Matt Heafy as a vocalist, it’s certainly commendable for him to do something that’s rather difficult in terms of what he’s normally used to. Even if you’re a huge fan of the band in general, you’ll most likely agree that Heafy was never really the best vocalist in metal, for both cleans and screams. His approach of absolutely no harsh vocals could go either way. This was a similar tactic used in
The Crusade, only this time instead of the James Hetfield influence, Heafy goes more for the inspiration of Dio, Alter Bridge, and even some Black Sabbath in certain places. Granted he still needs to work on it, as the auto tune in “When The World Goes Cold” and “Dead and Gone” shows clearly, but in songs like the title track and “Blind Leading the Blind” he manages to show tremendous improvement on many levels.
Even with the focus mainly on the melody, there are still the thrash metal influences in songs like “The Thing That’s Killing Me” and “Breathe in the Flames” where the faster pace and solos still gleam. Both songs still show the older, more well-known side of Trivium while still managing to continue the records experimental phase. The solos, while certainly not as phenomenal as the in the days of
Shogun and
Ascendancy, are executed well while the main guitar riffs still manage to contain power within the music.
If there is one major weakness in
Silence in the Snow, it’s the production. It’s true that David Draiman is no longer plaguing the record with his “disturbing” influences in the sound, however Michael Baskette doesn’t seem to fare that much better in terms of the record’s quality. It’s not as clean as it should’ve been and the guitars do often feel underpowered at times. The drumming is also rather weak in comparison. Mat Madiro is certainly a talented musician, but here he doesn’t give out as much energy as Travis Smith or Nick Augusto. Now sure as aforementioned, pretty much everything is dumbed down, but even with the heavier tracks he feels half-asleep most of the time, as if he can’t keep up with the rest of the group.
Silence in the Snow is most certainly going to be the most divisive Trivium record to date. Many fans are most likely going to turn this away while they clutch at their copies of
Shogun and
Ascendancy. Yet even with everything that has happened in the past two years, it’s surprising to see Trivium managing to pull off something as intriguing as this. Sure it’s not the best record that the band has come out with, but after this experiment it will certainly give audiences some curiosity as to what they will pull off next. Whatever the case, it’s pretty obvious that many will begin crying to see the old Trivium return in the near future.
