Album review: Silence In The Snow – Trivium

Aside ~ ~ mattlloyd20

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13:46, Tuesday 27th May 2016

Reviewed by Matthew Lloyd

Trivium, Silence In The Snow (Roadrunner Records), released 2nd October 2015

 

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Having always been a Trivium fan, I was extremely excited for the release of the band’s seventh studio album. Trivium have constantly changed their sound, with each record, but have always incorporated elements of mainstream metal while still retaining the band’s underground roots. Throughout their career Trivium have made subtle stylistic changes from album to album. Shogun, for example, maintains a distinct death metal feel throughout, whereas the later album entitled Vengeance Falls had far more melodic undertones, much closer to metalcore. Despite these stylistic variations, however, Trivium have maintained their relevance within metal music throughout their fifteen year career. So why then do other reviews for Silence in The Snow have such a mixed response? How can Cryptic Rock call it ‘a majestic journey through a valley of sonic expressionism that is exciting and breathtaking’ while Sonic Abuse say that its ‘not an album that they can wholeheartedly recommend’? This is undoubtedly down to the huge musical changes made in multiple directions in this record that sees the band cover new musical territory that has gone otherwise unheard on past releases.

Immediately the listener will notice that this album sees a return to the Shogun era, a fan favourite, in its use of seven-string guitars, which make themselves apparent to the listener through their darker sounding tone on several of the albums tracks. Our first exposition to this is the title track heard just after the introduction, where we can clearly hear the musical shift Trivium has made. The tempo is slowed down and the riffing that Trivium fans have come to love so much is removed. This could result in a long-term fan turning their nose up when the track kicks in, such as Angry Metal Guy stating: ‘when we finally do get to the title track, you quickly discover that this is a leftover from the Shogun days’, suggesting that this music is somehow inferior to previous attempts. Only after looking at this much more objectively it is easy to see why.

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Though solid throughout, one could argue that the guitar playing on this release is substandard compared to previous Trivium albums. The highly impressive guitar playing, for both rhythm and lead guitar, has always been a safe bet when picking up a Trivium CD in the past and is the reason a fan such as myself keeps returning for more. This album however changes that formulaic approach with the use of simpler rhythmic parts. This can be heard in tracks such as ‘Until The World Goes Cold’ and ‘Beneath The Sun’ where the iconic technical riffing style heard on earlier releases is substituted for a more ‘chuggy’ or strummed approach. Though this is a less engaging approach to guitar playing by Trivium’s standards, it leaves space for Heafy’s solid vocals to shine through as the listener can focus more intently on this aspect, as his voice is not competing with a complex riff. This being the case, one can offer a counter argument, that this songwriting approach compliments the vocals and is a coherent use of the instrumentation as it feels much more natural and genuine.

There are also songs that do employ the more ‘riff-based’ element that can be linked to Trivium’s earlier guitar playing style, such as those heard on ‘Bling Leading The Blind’ and ‘The Ghost That’s Haunting You’. The rhythmic playing on these songs gives the listener some sort of relief from the newer approach as they sound like songs that could easily have been on Ascendency or In Waves. Trivium succeed here by combining old with new and drawing on sounds that have been successful for them in the past that long term fans can relate to while still immersing them in a new stylistic world.

Another new style of guitar playing heard is the shift to more groove metal sounding riffs. Bands like Heart Of A Coward and Volumes use this as their primary style of guitar riffing and it works when used coherently. On Silence In The Snow, Trivium taps into this resource occasionally, such as the endings to the songs ‘Until The World Goes Cold’ and ‘Dead and Gone’. This creates some variance within the simpler style of guitar riffing and unifies the band tightly in these much more clear-cut breakdown sections, and hence is a very welcome addition.

Therefore you may be asking yourself, is the lead playing drastically different as well? The answer to this is both yes and no. The dual guitar harmony parts heard on this are not as impressive compared to previous releases. These were a key musical feature of Trivium’s early music and have been used much more minimally this time around. For instance the harmony part heard in ‘Rise Above The Tides’ is by no means on the level of the last few minutes of ‘A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation’ from Ascendency, but this then begs the question, why? Perhaps this is due to a similar reason that the rhythmic guitars are lacking in complexity, does it have to be mind blowing? For Silence In The Snow, this is not necessary. This compositional choice works in conjunction with the rhythmic guitar playing as it doesn’t take too much attention away from the vocals.

However, where the rhythm and dual guitar harmony parts fall slightly short of any Trivium fans expectations, the guitar solos most certainly do not. Once again both Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu showcase flawless lead guitar playing as their solos show incredible capability and coherence that would make even the best aspiring guitarists want to put their guitar down in a corner and never pick it back up. Not only do they show a wide range of playing techniques but they also manage to fit stylistically with the new approach to songwriting. A wide range of influences can be heard in these solos such as the neo-classical slant on playing, made signature by guitarists like Yngwie Malmsteen and Rusty Cooley, as well as more classic and melodious playing heard in classic rock and early metal, guitarists such as Tony Iommi and Richie Blackmore.

Occasionally, whole solos can be heard that have a composed harmonised part throughout. This is best displayed the solos on the track ‘Until The World Goes Cold’ and can only be described as staggering, as the guitarist has to essentially learn and master two solos, instead of just one, and play them in strict unison. Both guitarists sound equally talented while showcasing subtle stylistic differences in their playing, Beaulieu opting for an approach that incorporates more ‘shred’ playing while Heafy extracting memorable melodies mid solo that a listener might find themselves humming for a few days after. The combination of both modern and classic styles of soloing results in captivating lead parts in every single track on Silence In The Snow, just as it has in every single Trivium album since their first release, Ember To Inferno.

Another huge stylistic change that is noticeable on first listen is the drumming. Previous releases have seen such energetic performance on the drums as they have to match the level of intense riffing that the guitars and bass playing is producing. Trivium’s back catalogue covers a wide range of metal drumming styles, such as The Crusade’s thrash inspired patterns and the brief moments that In Waves dipped its toes into the genre of grindcore, using blast beats to create moments of extreme vigour. However, Matt Madiro’s drumming on this album sees the intensity setting turned down from 10 to around a 4. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it gives a lot more room for everything to breathe, most of all the bass. There are some parts of this album, like the verse section and ending to ‘The Ghost That’s Haunting You’ and the entirety of ‘Beneath The Sun’, when Paolo’s bass line and tone can be heard at the forefront of the song. This mixing and production choice results in a highly pleasing experience, as many modern metal albums seem to mix the bass so deeply into the track that it sometimes becomes inaudible and this leaves an imbalance with the rest of the instrumentation. Some may argue that the bass and in turn the low end of the songs in Silence In The Snow is too much and that it takes away some of the clarity in the guitars, however I feel it is a truly welcome change as Paolo Gregoletto’s technical skill and complimenting bass lines can be heard clearly and provides a driving force throughout.

A problem I do find with the drums however is the snare. On this album the snare sounds like it is being hit in a cave, and not in a pleasant way. Everything else in the drum set sounds appealing to the ear but the snare sounds very out of place. For example, in the last chorus of the title track the snare has even more reverb in an attempt to make this climactic section sound even more epic and in doing so it falls very short of this goal. Instead, it takes a lot away from the overall record as it almost sounds like the original acoustic snare was replaced with a much more digital and processed sounding one.

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One of the key elements of this album’s distinguishability as a modern metal album that uses more classic rock sounding musical features is Matt Heafy’s vocals. Looking back in Trivium’s discography, one will notice the use of both harsh and clean vocals. In earlier releases, such as Ascendancy, screamed vocals were used in a higher proportion than the occasional featuring clean heard in a chorus. More recent releases such as In Waves and Vengeance Falls seem to use harsh vocals to inject a sudden element of aggression in a particularly heavy section and subsequently have been featured less. This is undoubtedly due to Heafy’s close collaboration work with their past producer and Disturbed front man David Draiman, who’s vocal technique and sound made itself apparent on 2013’s Vengeance Falls.

Despite the arguably unenthusiastic response from the band’s fans to this change in the vocals on that record, Silence In The Snow sees the removal of harsh vocals completely to make way for a much more power metal sounding clean vocal. Matt Heafy’s clean vocals have improved significantly in every Trivium release, however on this album they are handled masterfully. Every song displays a confident use of clean vocal techniques such as vibrato and harmonization. The track ‘The Ghost That’s Haunting You’ displays this, with the highly contrasting parts. In this track his singing of the lyrics ‘What have I done/What have I become/Standing six feet deep, am I the only one’, shows how Heafy’s voice walks the fine line between what is classed as a scream and what is sung, as the grit of his voice is heard while still retaining a pitched note. This sounds much like that of early Metallica or Megadeth and connects the well-known influence that Matt Heafy personally has with early thrash music to this album. This is then contrasted with the chorus part that is sung convincingly, in harmony and passionately. The influence of significant vocalists key to the progression of this genre of music, such as Freddie Mercury and Ronnie James Dio, is undeniable when listening to Heafy’s voice. The vocals seem to hark back to an era of heavy rock and metal that is recognized as essential in any enthusiast’s repertoire, combined with the focus of Trivium’s composition now moving away from eccentric guitar playing toward focusing on melodic and harmonious vocal lines. This makes Heafy’s vocal performance a highly accessible element of this album and a thoroughly enjoyable feature throughout.

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However, although the quality of the vocals shines through on this album, the lyrics do not. They seem to hit on general metal clichés that can be interpreted in several different ways and almost feel lazy at certain points and as Ultimate Guitar’s review sums up, the lyrics lack in variation:

Pull me from the void/Trapped beneath the tide of noise/Pull me from the void/Pathetic world I must destroy (From: Pull Me From The Void)

Rise, rise above the tides/The waves will pull you under if you don’t fight/Rise, rise above the tides/It’s over now, yourself could give up on life (From: Rise Above The Tides)

            It does not work on Silence In The Snow and sometimes you will find yourself wondering if you’ve already heard this chorus in a different song. This does not mean however that lyrically this album is without its charms. Several tracks show the lyrical competence that I personally, as well as the Trivium fan base, have come to expect:

Here we all stand on this canvas of white/Our palette holds but only one shade tonight/Silence snows in, in her wintery chill/Let’s paint the ground red with the blood of our kill (From: Silence In The Snow)

Losing/Losing my faith in/The world that surrounds me/Am I/Am I the only one/To constantly question it all/So/So far away/It’s ourselves that we betray/How has it come to this/We are but drones/Silenced, led amiss (From: Blind Leading The Blind)

          After hearing the snippets like this within the record where the lyrics are a lot less contrived and instead more heartfelt I find myself slightly disappointed, as it is evident that the lyrics didn’t receive enough attention in the song writing process, an observation I’m sure the band’s fan base will mostly agree with.

Upon my first listen of Silence In The Snow I must admit I was a little downhearted. I felt let down that Trivium hadn’t delivered the musical elements that kept me craving for more over the years and that made me made me as a 12 year old boy want to pick up a guitar. However, this lead me to question; why I was so disheartened? Could it be perhaps be due to the constant battles within modern metal as bands try to outmatch each other with who can play the fastest, who is the most progressive or who has the heaviest riff in a breakdown? Being so conditioned to hearing the extremes that metal covers today in all musical aspects, music like this is rarely made. Once I understood that this was the reason for my discontent, I re-listened to Silence In The Snow and began to realise that this album is a stroke a genius. As New Noise Magazine also acknowledges, this album is not drastically different from previous releases and hence has the band’s recognisable sound. Trivium have managed to incorporate elements of their past records that all the fans love while stripping their music down to the bare basic elements of metal and not conforming to modern trends. Metal at present seems to be focusing on egotistical aspects instead of the fundamental musical ideas of the genre when writing songs, such as a powerful vocal, simple yet soul crushing guitar riffs and solid drum performances. Trivium have recognised this and used it to their advantage to succeed in creating an album that throws back to the era of power metal, using elements of modern metal they deem necessary but also retaining and refining their signature sound.

 

8/10

 

Favourite Tracks: ‘Silence In The Snow’, ‘The Ghost That’s Haunting You’, ‘Beneath The Sun’

For fans of: Volbeat, Disturbed, Alter Bridge

 

Trivium are currently on tour across the US and Europe playing the start of the festival season just shortly after their knockout UK tour. Tickets and dates are available here at the bands website: http://www.trivium.org/tour

 

 

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