Review Summary: All in all Trivium's new sound is pretty good, this album gives you a mix of trivium's older heavier riffs and some of their newly adapted old school riffs. If you only liked trivium for their screaming vocals don't buy this album.
When Matt Heafy said he wanted to take trivium in a different direction i thought oh no.. another decent band is 'changing' there music, this could be disastrous. But Matt has taken Trivium to be pretty much Metallica clones, the resemblance between metallica and trivium now is unmistakable. Its almost as is Matt has listened to James Hetfield vocals and tried to mimic him. But this isn't entirely a bad thing, if you are a fan of Metallica you will have either on of the following outlooks on the crusade, one being: what the hell i might as well just go listen to Metallica, or: hey these guys are like the modern day Metallica that are gonna be around for alot longer than the aging Metallica are. Trivium have really just taken Metallica's sound and sped it up, a lot. Travis smith is still one of the fastest drummers to use a double kick, his intense drumming helps once again in giving trivium there blinding speed, while Matt and Corey play there thrash and metal riffs giving the original trivium sound without the screaming vocals, which sometimes i tend to miss.
The Crusade kicks off with 'Ignition' already getting you into the fast pace of the rest of the album, and you can tell by the chorus Matt has been working on his clean vocals, the song is a great introduction to the rest of the album, and has a great riff that will probably get stuck in your head.
'Detonation' was a bit disappointing its sounds similar to ignition just with the vocals sung in a kind of annoying rhythm. The song seems to repeat the annoying riffs, the decent ones are gone in a flash.
'Entrance of the conflagration' is a great track the clean chorus is going to get stuck in your head like a lot of the songs on this album, and the bridge/solo gives an old 80/90's thrash metal feel which they do fantastically.
'anthem (we are the fire)' brings the sound from the solo of entrance of the conflagration, but this time the whole song is old school metal.
'Unrepentant' sounds like one of trivium's older heavier riffs just minus the screaming, once again the clean vocals are done very well in the chorus, after listening to this song a few times it grows on you.
'Sadness will sear' is the first slower song on the album, and for a good reason. The song is boring and repetitive. The slower pace doesn't suit them at all.
'Becoming the dragon' wakes you up with an extremely fast solo intro and gets you back into the rocking mood. The breakdown in the middle of the song is awesome for all you fans who miss the screaming this song is for you.
'To the rats' is thrash metal at its finest. Once again the song has a breakdown in the metal of it blending thrash with hardcore, this song isn't the greatest, but a fine display that trivium can play thrash riffs as well as anyone.
'This world cant tear us apart' is trivium saying "hey look if we're not successful metal band we could be a boy band", the lyrics are like something from a backstreet boys song. Skip it.
'Tread the floods' makes up for the last song, it has an awesome riff, and pre chorus, but by now the whole album is just starting to blend together.
'Contempt breeds contamination' is really just sadness will sear with some faster riffs in it, the chorus is enough to make u listen to it a couple of time the verses aren't.
'The rising' is the best old school metal song on the album, this is could easily be mistaken for an old metallica song it's so similar . The whole song is a poor attempt of re creating the master of puppets sound.
'The crusade' is the best instrumental metal song I've heard in a long time, although its repetitive, its still awesome and an awesome track to finish off the album on a good note.
