Trimonium is a small black metal band hailing from Germany. I picked up the CD as a random buy never having heard of the band before and it is has been one of my better buys this year. Not defining themselves in any certain metal style while using some interesting structures makes this a pretty refreshing album (labeled under black metal on most sites even though it isn't strictly this genre) that can be listened to a lot without getting tedious to listen to.
Trimonium use guitars, bass and drums to accompany the vocals, leaving out keyboards or folk instruments unlike most other pagan bands. At the core of the music is something similar to Hammerheart era Bathory, yet it differentiates itself from Bathory as well by being more fully produced and less varied in tempo and song length. The only song to give a somewhat Viking or pagan feel (disregarding lyrics, which are all about the kind of things like battle, death, perseverance, and strength) is the intro song Mirrors Hall, which is cool because it is played entirely on old folk instruments of Europe, rather than using modern synths to replicate the sounds.
The music itself is true the faster and a bit thrashy side of black metal. tremolo picked riffs are in abundance here, often harmonized and there are also a lot of fast palm muted power chord riffs to go along with the music. The chord progressions in the music are pretty interesting, enough so that you at least know that the songs don't just use the same two chord progression under every song like some bands do. There is also plenty of rhythmic variation, usually a song will start in sixteenth notes, and then will move into a bridge section that has a triplet rhythm to it, giving a small sense of there being a small song (the mid-section or bridge) within some songs on this album.
Drums are also surprisingly well produced for a relatively small band like Trimonium. The bass drum has a big beefy sound. the toms are easy to hear, and the snare is also tuned well so that it doesn't get annoying in the mix. The most difficult thing to appreciate about this album are the vocals. usually harsh, they are pretty close to what Abbath sounded like on later Immortal CDs. Pretty much a low growl that isn't too aggressive, but it is damn powerful which makes up for the lack of the up front aggression that a band like Endstille delivers. he vocals grow on you, give the album one whole listen and then let it rest for a few days before coming back to it. It will sound better than you remember (this was at least my case).
The songs themselves are generally very steady in quality. No filler riffs, no uber-repitition, nothing really obviously bad. Songs have the speed and feel to make for a good handbanging album, but they are also sometimes very epic in how they build up and can be easily enjoyed if you just want to sit ,listen, and absorb the music. One of the better albums of 2007, nicely breaking the trend of most "pagan/folk" black metal that I've heard. Also a good metal album in general, I can picture of fans many sub-genres like Thrash, Black, and even Melodic Death Metal enjoying this album. It features a nice blend of styles, which is it's core strength.
Recommended Tracks:
Son of a Blizzard
The Wisdom of the Crying Stones
Choose the Weapon
