Artist: Trivium
Label: Lifeforce Records
Release Date: 10/14/03
Rating: 3 Skulls
|
|
Title: Ember to Inferno Artist: Trivium Label: Lifeforce Records Release Date: 10/14/03
Rating: 3 Skulls |
|
|
|
||
Reviewed by Redwolff (11/11/03):
When Requiem sent in his Trivium demo review, I had just received this debut album in the mail. The 4-skull review he gave the demo made me look forward to hearing Ember to Inferno, as Requiem and I have similar, metalcore-favorable taste in music. Not having heard the demo, I don't know if this album is a departure from Trivium's former style or if Requiem and I diverge more than I thought; trivium literally means "three roads" and refers to the use of grammar, rhetoric and logic to express oneself, but the word immediately brought to mind while listening to this album was something closer to tedium, unfortunately.I listened to this CD last night at the gym, as I often do with review albums, because running on a treadmill or using a stairclimber can be boring as hell if you don't have something to entertain yourself. While I found Trivium's energy, aggression and fast tempos initially helpful in my quest to burn a few hundred calories, eventually I started to space out on the music, and was therefore surprised when I looked down at my CD player and found the digital display reading "Song 4" when I thought I'd only listened to a couple songs. True metalcore bands usually have short breakdowns of total silence in their songs, and apparently I had misinterpreted the abbreviated breaks between songs as breakdowns within songs. What could that mean? As the fifth song began, and an almost identical tempo and chord structure kicked in, I began to realize that the first six songs are so similar to each other they might as well be one long, repetitious song. This is not a good thing, in my opinion. It isn't until the seventh song, with its softer, instrumental intro, does any track distinguish itself as being significantly different.
The good news is that while Trivium does share a lot in common with metalcore bands, they also incorporate Gothenburg and classic thrash sounds - you could say they lean more towards the metal side of the metal/core balance. The most metalcore thing about them is the screamed vocals, which are also punctuated by some clean passages. There are guitar solos, and the drums take an elevated position in the mix. I guess the bottom line is this is a talented, tight metal band masquerading as a somewhat boring metalcore band. As a debut album, this isn't bad, but I hope things get more exciting as the band matures.
[- Metal Judgment Home -] [- Email Metal Judgment -]
©1999 Metal Judgment. All rights reserved.