Above statements might not exactly be true but they do say something about the new Trivium record; 'The Crusade'. Matthew Hetfiel..I mean Heafy and his friends did quite some touring on their breakthrough album 'Ascendancy'. The band played with Metallica, travelled around the world and will open up for Iron Maiden later this year. Not bad for a bunch of guys who started out in 2000 and have the average age of +- 22. Numerous interviews done during the 'Ascendency' tour already revealed that this new album will be different.

 

And differences there are! The band went back to the drawing board and injected a big dose of thrash and heavy metal into the music toolbox that was already quite elaborate. No more hardcore screaming but mostly sung vocals (with occasional growls), more technical riffs and an 8 minute long instrumental (the title track, "The Crusade") that will probably please some Dream Theatre and Symphony X fans out there. A lot of fuss has already been made about the vocals, but personally I prefer them over the standard screaming you hear on 80% of the more popular metal releases these days. Heafy admitted that the screaming was because he just couldn’t sing properly. You could debate about the fact that he sounds like an early James Hetfield, but hey, even Hetfield’s vocals are a far cry from what they used to be. I still don’t like the clean parts as much as I want to but the rough singing style works pretty well in my opinion. Some of the more ‘metalcore’ fans of Trivium will probably detest it but to me it’s definitely a more musical direction.

 

Tracks like "Anthem (We Are The Fire)" almost veer into 80s glam/heavy metal while songs like "Ignition", "Detonation", "To The Rats" and "Tread the Floods" are up-tempo songs with well played thrash metal riffs and impressive solo work. The solo count has been upped quite a bit, with great work being done by Heafy and Corey Beaulieu. As if they haven't been on the cover of Guitar World already. 'The Crusade' is a much more complex (or traditional, depending on your point of view) record than ‘Ascendancy’, which will probably piss of some of the band’s fans but I wonder if that group of fans likes decent metal to begin with. Next to the faster tracks there are songs like "And Sadness Will Sear" and "This World Can’t Tear Us Apart", with the latter one being driven by a very catchy melodic guitar line (cough single cough). The lyrics might be a bit on the hammy side, but metal is hammy to begin with.

 

In the end Trivium put out a record that is a step forward for them as musicians. The band will lose some fans and probably gain some new ones from a probably preferable crowd. This record might be their first real step in their “crusade” to become legendary, but if they keep improving themselves with every record there is no reason why they shouldn’t become one of the biggest bands in the future.