In Waves

Trivium learned from the best

American national music thrash metal has been brought to the doors of the funeral parlor not a year, and not even a decade ago. Today, the genre’s progenitors and top masters, Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth are rather a rich legacy, highest standard to follow, and names to be compared to, but not competitive acts anymore. Their numerous fans have to admit that the Big Four ought to go now, and so ought their music, the first wave of thrash metal. Those ready to replace them on the stage are headed by Americans (that was needless to say actually), Trivium who cast their own thrash metal of the new generation. You can waste eternity debating on how much actual thrash they have in their music and how much of everything else there is there, unless you put up with the fact that the times have changed and there is not going to be another Master Of Puppets, and we might not need it in fact. If you clear steer of imminent comparisons to the genre’s pioneers, Trivium might be those who are capable of postponing the burial of thrash metal by several more years. In 2011, the band presented their fifth record, In Waves, this marking their first five-CD achievement.

Trivium have lost some weight

In Waves is sure to get a truck of dirt from hardcore metalheads. Trivium are well used to that, because each time they bring a new album, it is accompanied with accusations of selling out and siding up with pop-format; but this time it is going to be tough. The metal part of the American band’s music is still there, and even got harder. Heafy sings in clean voice better and, feeling that confidence, uses it all over the place. Riffs are more solid, and the new drummer Nick Augusto proves his skills in the new group with so much vigor that he could have recorded a couple of solos all by himself and his drumkit. But there is TOO MUCH clean vocal, like in A Grey So Dark, and the good riffs simply push out classy solos, making them a rare kind here. Maybe, only Forsake Not The Dream features solo guitar getting a hundred percent out of its potential. Finally, the melodiousness, as usual in Trivium’s songs, prevails over aggressiveness. Even the fairly heavy and speedy Inception Of The End grabs you with its tuneful hooks, especially in the choruses. The only place where only pure thrash metal dwells is the lyrics causing no claims from most ugly and evil metal headbangers. There is even some misbalance between dark words and not that dark music. Watch The World Burn is a song about the world’s end, where there is room for a sweet melody and no room enough for depressive doom-like riffs.

Modern music for modern audience

You can understand, but in no way justify those skeptical experts and fans of extreme music who unnaturally turn up their noses when Trivium is brought up. Their arguments that the band has nothing to do with thrash metal, but only make an imitation that hurts the genre are irrelevant and even not serious. Sure, it not the thrash that ruined the ears and heads of metal fans twenty or thirty years ago. As time goes by, boundaries between styles are getting thinner and somewhere have already vanished. Some listeners, mostly supporters of heavy metal trends, find it hard to live with. You can hardly debate with defenders of true/real/original metal, but you have no need to prove anything to those who share a more neutral position, and listeners of this kind are growing in numbers among Trivium supporters. What kind of claims can they have to the vocalist who masters clean and extreme vocals equally well? What else may they ask of the guitars which combine both heaviness and tunes? Is there any fault they can find with the drummer and bassist who prove the entire album with distinct, steady and high tempo? For the majority of Trivium fans, In Waves will be another powerful album made in full compliance with the standards of contemporary hard rock music.