Review Summary: One step forward, how many steps back?
No surprise, Trivium are back with a new album 2 years after their last effort, 2013's 'Vengeance Falls'. That was an album which received a fair enough response but also a lot of criticism from long-time fans of the band towards the obvious influence of it's producer, Disturbed frontman David Draiman. It was clear he did more than simply produce the album, in fact it would seem the biggest part he played was the vocal 'teachings' he gave Matt Heafy, Draiman has an incredibly distinctive and unique voice so when that showed up on Trivium's last record fans understandably were not all that enthused. In all honesty though it was a decent record, I myself enjoyed it more than In Waves, it felt a bit more consistent and the new style of clean singing gave it more character than the over-produced generic poppy cleans of In Waves. The reason I'm focusing so much on vocals is because quite simply they are the biggest focus on this new record 'Silence in the Snow', in which vocalist Matt Heafy has completely done away with 'heavy' vocals, so no screaming or growls here folks.
This is a move I have much respect for, sticking to only cleans, making a concrete decision like that and committing to it, but does the whole band go as far as they can with the music on this album? Unfortunately the answer is a no. Even on your first listen of the album it is apparent, that the 3 singles released before hand are the strongest songs off the record, along with maybe the album closer 'breathe in the Flames'. That's not to say that the rest are bad, in fact there's usually at least one thing to love in each of the songs whether it be an instrumental intro, a chorus or bridge/breakdown/solo. For example, one of the first things that caught me outside of the singles was the chorus off the track 'Rise Above the Tides', to me it has a real youthful energy and almost sounded like it could've been a chorus off an 'Ascendancy' B-side, something I was certainly not expecting. Generally speaking though, the highest and most enjoyable moments of the record are Heafy's vocals, it really does seem like he's kept what he learnt from Draiman but managed to build upon it; augmenting it, bringing in more influences like classic metal and ending up with a nice balance between classic and modern.
The same is tried with the instrumentals on this album, striking a balance between old and new. Unfortunately though this balance isn't as well struck as with the vocals, sometimes the differences are a bit too distinctive. The best example would be the down-tuned, almost djenty opening of 'Dead and Gone', although not completely un-enjoyable it sticks out like a sore thumb, like the band really just wanted to include it because they thought it sounded cool and different. Instrumentally the album can be quite simplistic, something I took issue with on my initial listens but by now After 2 or 3 weeks I feel they more than serve their purpose for the music. The guitar solos are all pretty enjoyable on this album and I feel they show off that nice blend of the classic and modern with the kind of breakdowns going on behind, it gives them a bit of an edge. 'Until The World Goes Cold's solo/break is a good example, despite maybe being the most ballad-sounding track off the album it's also the most crushing song when it comes to that breakdown.
The biggest problem I had with this record would be the song structures, basically all the songs follow the following structure: instrumental solo-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge/solo/breakdown-final chorus and/or outro instrumental, and all averaging about 4 and a half minutes long. Maybe this is too harsh of a criticism for one of the most mainstream metal bands out there, but then again I'm not expecting the band to do anything too out there like 10-minute long songs. What this repeated structure does is make the filler tracks (which seems to be about 50% of the album) the more and more obvious where the band are clearly being complacent in the making of these songs, being happy with simply putting together a song in the most average way possible with absolutely no intentions of pushing any kind of boundaries whatsoever.
Overall this is a very good album for what it is, there's nothing really terrible here, even the filler tracks have something to enjoy. But at this point in the band's career, especially highlighted by this album, it's clear the band are simply making the music they want to make rather than perhaps making the best possible music they have the ability to. Although the balance between classic and modern elements is nicely done there is nothing game changing here, nothing even that exciting, quite frankly it feels like a bit of a dead end. From the band that put out arguably one of the best modern-mainstream metal albums 'Shogun' this is dissapointing to say the least. I don't expect the band to retread Shogun territory exactly, but I can't help but remember the initial teasing for this new material from the band (before any of the music was heard) where myself and many others were getting an almost black metal vibe, imagine that? If they tried at least bringing in some heavy black metal influences into the music. Sure, it could've been a complete failure, but what if they succeeded with a black metal/metalcore hybrid? These guys are artists with some obvious talent, they've proved it, but where's the creativity now? This album is good but also the definition of complacency.
