Trivium have produced, over the years, a back catalogue of which they should be rightly proud. Never stooping to repeat the same album twice, the stunning ‘Ascendancy’ was followed by the melodic and undeservedly maligned ‘the crusade’ and the epic ‘shogun’ was, remarkably, improved upon by the towering edifice that was ‘in waves’. Subsequently, the band have worked with David Draiman on the punishing ‘’vengeance falls’ and diversified into entirely clean singing with ‘silence in the snow’. In all honesty, I found aspects of that album disappointing, not because of the clean singing per se but because the record as a whole, whilst boasting some fine songs, lacked the variety I have come to expect from Trivium. Not that that stopped me from playing the album to death, mind, but Trivium are capable of better. Now, some two years after ‘Silence…’ and with a new drummer on board (Alex Bent), Trivium are back with an album that is tantamount to a best of, combining the most impressive elements of their heaviest material with the melodic nous that informed ‘silence…’ The result is gleaming, state-of-the-art metal album that stands as the highlight of Trivium’s varied career to date.
From the moment that the title track emerges, it’s clear that we’re in for a heavy ride. ‘The sin and the sentence’ makes good use of the deftly woven harmonies prevalent on ‘silence…’ but combines them with a ferocious chorus that hits home hard. Destined to be a live favourite, ‘the sin…’ has a melody to die for whilst Alex makes his presence instantly felt with a drum performance that rattles the teeth. The band even find time to put in a perfectly phrased, trad-metal solo, just to make it clear that they had no boundaries in mind when they set out to write this album. A ferocious, full-blooded thrash monster, ‘Beyond oblivion’ juxtaposes the clean lines of the verse with a gang-chorus that is as powerful as anything Trivium have ever recorded. The chorus melody could best be described as ‘classic Trivium’, recalling ‘the crusade’, but there’s a fire and fury in the riffing that ups the ante nicely, whilst the overall arrangement is ambitious in scope. Taking the album to an emotional and melodic peak, ‘other worlds’ with its wide-eyed chorus of “we’re dreaming in colours” is an evocative track with a nasty sting lurking just beneath the surface. An album highlight, the juddering might of ‘the heart from your hate’ has a carefully built quiet-loud dynamic that is perfectly suited to radio play with its instantly catchy hook and note-perfect vocal performance. Reminiscent of Stone Sour’s recent melodic excursion on ‘Hydrograd’, it’s a perfect example of modern metal. Just as it looks as if the band are heading towards lighter pastures, the surging riff of ‘betrayer’ comes crashing in before the first half of the album reaches a climax with elastic riff and churning bass of ‘the wretchedness inside’, a relentless slab of brutality with and vocals that hark right back to ‘ascendency’.
The second half of the disc kicks off with the surprisingly svelte ‘Endless night’, a straight up classic rock song with a chorus that soars toward the sky before Trivium blindside the listener with the devastating rage of ‘sever the hand’, another track destined to ignite a mosh pit of apocalyptic proportions. Somewhat unexpected after so volcanic a display, ‘beauty in the sorrow’ opens upon a naked guitar and vocal, stripped of all the studio trickery, before the band come crashing in in full rage, offering up a piece that neatly steps between tempos and moods in a manner that keeps the listener hooked. Keeping the surprises coming, ‘the revanchist’ throws in a curveball, tool-esque bass line and staccato guitar riff that offers some new sonic possibilities for the next album before this most varied of albums comes to a satisfying conclusion with the crunchy ‘thrown into the fire’, a creeping, malevolent slab of metal built around Paulo Gregoletto’s sinister bass line. It’s all here in this last stand: hyper speed riffing, guttural screams, soaring melodies and intense solos; and it’s hard to imagine a more fitting end to the album.
Trivium’s ability to reinvent themselves with every album, whilst staying true to the core sound with which they started has long been one of their most admirable features. Certainly ‘the sin and the sentence’ continues the sense of evolution first evidenced on ‘the crusade’ and yet it also neatly summarises the band’s various stages to date. Those seeking ferocious metal will find it on tracks like ‘sever the hand’ and the opening tornado of sound, whilst those who succumbed to the hook-laden melodies of ‘silence in the snow’ will find their appetites just as neatly sated. Highlights abound, not least with the tool-esque crunch of ‘the revanchist’ and the corrosive might of ‘betrayer’, and Matt Heafy has only got better in the vocal department, hitting the clean notes with confidence, but allowing the grit to creep in as the song requires. Expensively and expansively produced, ‘the sin and the sentence’ is a work of supreme confidence from a band who have steadfastly refused to be cowed by the vagaries of a notoriously fickle industry and it deserves a place high amidst the albums of the year. 9
