With a lot of energy and hard rock, Trivium return with their latest album What The Dead Men Say, released on April 24 by Roadrunner Records. Ten tracks that pulsate with emotions, with a well-paced rhythm and riffs that enter the soul.
Review
The album has a dark personality that goes well with the heavy metal genre. Between reality and imagination, we find the desire for rebellion, great suffering, and the question that no one will ever answer: what the dead men say?
The first track is IX, a striking intro, with a crescendo that starts desolate and then becomes angry; it seems almost a revenge as if sadness cannot have a long life against anger. The drums play a big role along with the electric guitar; the mixing of these two instruments creates a pressing sound, which seems to engage with the intro of the second track, What The Dead Men Say.
We could consider this as the symbolic song of the album, in which the afterlife seems to be approaching our earthly world, and thus the boundary between life and death thins. It is marked by a bursting rhythm and combined with a truly effective video, which embodies all the power of mystical magic, nature and the charm that death has on us; I find What The Dead Men Say is one of their best songs. Music is perfect thanks also to the powerful and clean sound of Matt’s voice.
Catastrophist, with its unforgettable riff and Matt’s perfect growl – the scream of a demon just out of the Underworld – leaves its mark especially for the great skill of Alex, the drummer. The mastery with which he handles his instrument, how the battery seems to be an extension of his arms and the play on his wrist, is incredible.
As for Amongst The Shadows & The Stones, The Defiant, Scattering The Ashes and Bending The Arch To Fear, they share a fast pace. In these songs the instruments seem more close-knit, merging almost into a single instrument, and Matt’s voice juggles well between the melodic and the growl. They make up the part of the album that holds in itself that adrenaline-like anger typical of metal.
The suffering of loss
Clean and well-paced the sound of the guitar in Bleed Into Me, preceded by the dark rhythm of the electric bass; the drums accompany Matt’s voice which drags itself melodic throughout the song, in perfect symbiosis with the lyrics. I would call it one of the most exciting songs on the album, together with Sickness Unto You. The latter piece has a complex instrumental composition and speaks of loss; how difficult it is to have to choose to end the life of another living being, someone which is dear to us. Matt wrote this song for his faithful companion Miyuki, a French bulldog to whom he was very attached. I confess that I was moved, Matt’s suffering is palpable, especially at the beginning of the song, when the rhythm is still calm.
Finally, we find The Ones We Leave Behind, excellent as a closing piece. It summarizes the whole album and contains the pressing rhythm typical of this band. It fades into a successful solo, accompanied by an instrumental rhythm that seems to want to communicate that Trivium still has a lot in store for us. AÂ worthy finale of the group and this album, which I am ready to consider one of the best they have produced.
Therefore Trivium reconfirm their ability to know how to find the perfect balance between voice and instruments. With What The Dead Men Say they hit the mark once again!
