Trivium have been on a bit of an upward surge in recent years after their return with The Sin & The Sentence after a couple of mediocre albums. The Sin… was an excellent showing of what modern metal could be and had career best performances from all members of the band. As such What The Dead Men Say has a difficult job in following up such a beloved album. Given the hype that’s been coming from various other outlets one could be forgiven for being a tad sceptical- we’ve all been burnt before I’m sure- but the only way to really find out is to listen to the bloody thing.
Opening track, IX, begins in a way reminiscent of Metallica’s Battery, clean guitars play us in before transferring that same melody into heavy terrains as the full band comes in. A technical, winding riff raises the tension before smoothly transitioning to the title track, which almost instantly introduces a neck snapping riff. The song then goes on to set expectations for the rest of the album. A complexly structured whirlwind of riffs that smoothly transition into one another and through all the structural twists that Trivium though your way. The tempo changes, dynamic twists and blistering solos all remind of Master Of Puppets and The Blackening, with their own twist of the formula. The shorter song lengths allow the songs to instantly hit the highlight moments rather than meandering around. There’s not a wasted second here, and the choruses- often the weakest parts of structurally complex songs like these- really pop. Catastrophist’s chorus is the ultimate demonstration of this, it is the perfect modern metal chorus that just happens to be tied to a labyrinthine song structure that wouldn’t be out of place in a prog-metal epic.
As with most albums that front-load all the singles there is a bit of a drop in quality in the second half, a lot of the structural tricks here have already been used to great effect in the first half and as such the impact is diminished here. That said the soaring Maiden-esque guitar leads on The Defiance are impossible to resist as the insist on painting a smile on your face. Cory Beaulieu and Matt Heafy continue to be a guitar duo who have earned their place next to Tipton and Downing or Smith and Murray. Drummer Alex Bent continues to be beyond incredible on each and every one of these tracks. But one of the reasons that these songs really benefit from a good pair of headphones is just how excellent Paolo Gregoletto’s bass work is here, all the little flourishes he adds on tracks like The Sickness Unto You. Matt Heafy’s vocals don’t feel quite as strong or as full as they did on The Sin & The Sentence, which is a shame as that was one of my favourite vocal performances of the decade and this doesn’t quite hit the same height, but even still he is leagues ahead of many other modern metal vocalists and delivers these vocal lines very impressively.
Ultimately I don’t think What The Dead Men Say quite hits the heights of the Metallica and Machine Head classics I referenced earlier- simply due to the drop off in the second half- but this is still one of the best straight ahead metal albums to have come out in a long time- at least since The Sin & The Sentence came out. Trivium are on a run of quality better than they’ve ever been in their career. There are plenty of times when I think all the best metal riffs have already been written but Trivium have shown up with an album full of the buggers just to prove me wrong. To say that this album isn’t quite as good at two of the best albums ever written should not be taken as a slight against it, as this album is more than likely to end up in many end of year lists- and rightly so- it’s amazing.
Highlights: Catastrophist, What The Dead Men Say, Amongst The Shadows And The Stones.
What The Dead Men Say is out 24th April via Roadrunner Records and can be purchased here
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