Trivium – In Waves [Special Edition] (2011)

01. Capsizing the Sea
02. In Waves				play
03. Inception of the End
04. Dusk Dismantled
05. Watch the World Burn
06. Black
07. A Skyline's Severance
08. Ensnare the Sun*
09. Built To Fall
10. Caustic Are the Ties That Bind
11. Forsake Not the Dream
12. Drowning In Slow Motion
13. A Grey So Dark
14. Chaos Reigns			    play
15. Of All These Yesterdays
16. Leaving This World Behind
17. Shattering The Skies Above
18. Slave New World (Sepultura Cover)

Musicians:
* Matt Heafy: Guitars, Vocals (Lead)
* Corey Beaulieu: Guitars, Vocals
* Paolo Gregoletto: Bass, Vocals
* Nick Augusto: Drums

To Trivium's credit, they realized the bomb they had in their hands with Shogun and swiftly abandoned that overblown avenue. In Waves drops nearly all of the clinical thrash influence that had begun seeping into the group's formula in varying degrees on both the record directly preceding it and The Crusade. This should signal a substantial decrease in memorability, but the group has wisely attempted what is essentially the second coming of Ascendancy. As such, metalcore dominates the genre palette, with occasional deviations into more experimental waters regarding song structure and efficiently-picked palm mutes that exist as the final gasp of the style put forth during the group's weaker period.

While it goes without saying that In Waves is an improvement over Shogun, it's not all wine and roses. I have to stress that while Trivium was never an original group by any stretch of the imagination, they hit a relatively enviable stride with Ascendancy, and through that the band more or less stumbled into mainstream recognition and (arguable) greatness. Take the same formula as before, accrue six years of exposure to the mainstream music business, and something similar to In Waves should begin to take shape. To speak in broader terms, the band is seriously forcing a stylistic reversal here, and the music suffers somewhat as a result. I almost want to give Trivium a free pass on this album's terms alone, as they had boxed themselves into a corner that required them to either sell their souls or cut and run, and they clearly attempted the latter on the approach path to In Waves.

The controversial departure of Smith and interjection of newcomer Nick Augusto behind the kit was a wise choice in hindsight. With a style clearly more rooted in death metal than any of the genres Trivium draws influence from, he forces the band to scramble and improvise just to keep up with him. Heafy has disclosed in interviews that he had to significantly reign Augusto's abilities in just to keep the music running at a balanced gradation. Despite being the odd man out in more ways than one, Augusto is a good fit for the group and helps draw the listener's attention away from many of In Waves' less than stellar inner-workings. I, for one, would be interested in listening to what he could do while running at full speed, as he still manages to rip out some blastbeats along with a few creative fills and atypical patterns at multiple junctures here. Overall, not a bad debut at all.

I really have issues with some of the riffs here, though. Trivium has never been a band to include many (if at all) breakdowns and lowest common denominator crap like that, but for some reason there is a lot of that here. Check out that tepid, stop-start mess of a riff that constitutes the majority of the title track. I can't even say that it grooves nicely, as it just plods like no other, occasionally giving way to the otherwise passable chorus. Sometimes the band comes damn close to their primary goal here, as "Caustic Are the Ties that Bind" could easily slip into Ascendency's procession without anybody being able to tell the difference. "A Skyline's Severance" is a beast of its own making, though. Augusto really gets cooking during the verses and the riffs are quite effective in isolation. It certainly helps that In Waves boasts a peerless guitar tone, but it is decent all the same. Other than the lame ass half-ballad "Of All These Yesterdays," nothing here is truly vomit-worthy by any measure. The band attempts a similar coup with "Forsake Not the Dream," but its more balanced disposition works in its favor and it ends up being one of the highlights.

In fact, In Waves is passable on the whole and is a required pickup if you really enjoyed Ascendancy. While I have the privilege of knowing that the band stumbled again immediately afterwards with Vengeance Falls, this came off as a consummate return to form after the meandering and atrocious Shogun. The band overreaches a bit as far as re-implementing their older style, but there are a number of tracks here that are well worth the time of fans of this style. Some of the modern influences hurt it a bit, but for Trivium you gotta take what you can get, and I'll take this. ---Diamhea, metal-archives.com

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire ulozto gett bayfiles

back