I was fortunate enough to hit up the 2011 edition of HEAVY T.O. and even purchased the tickets before the band were announced. For some reason, I had a feeling it was going to be a good year :-)
Now these guys though I have seen numerous times over the years and seen them progress as a band. I will admit, some shows have been better than others, especially when they throw some influential covers in their set (aka Metallica's "Master of Puppets", or Sepultura's "Slave New World"). Either way you look at them, they seem to have that niche as a band who will be around for the long haul. These guys are now the face of many new metal heads and will continue to pump out good albums time and time again.
Now, for these articles, I usually throw around some opinions and constructive criticisms. I'm going to keep all feelings aside and just report on some need to know facts about these bands to make your experience at the festival a little more enjoyable. If you know of someone going to the festival, pass the articles along and get them just as stoked as we are! For today, AFGM brings you TRIVIUM!
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With their fifth full-length album, In Waves, Trivium make a crucial statement.
It's a statement about writing their own rules about what it means to be a contemporary metal band. It's a statement that encompasses boundary-defying music, moods, movement, and visuals. It's a statement that's emblematic of their evolution. It's a statement that's going to impact anyone open to it.
Trivium is:
Matt Heafy - Guitar, Lead Vocals | Corey Beaulieu - Guitar, Vocals | Paolo Gregoletto - Bass, Vocals | Nick Augusto - Drums
While on the road in 2009, the first rumblings of In Waves began. Trivium vocalist and guitarist Matt Heafy had already started pondering the direction the band would take for their fifth offering. So far, they'd excelled at the standard hallmarks of the genre, and he wanted to do something new.
Each one of their albums—Ascendancy (2005), The Crusade (2006), and Shogun (2008)—garnered unanimous critical and fan acclaim. Ascendancy cemented the band's place in the metal-verse, selling over half-a-million copies worldwide.
Shogun debuted at #23 on the Billboard Top 200 and in the top 100 in 18 other countries. All over the globe, they rose to the ranks of metal elite, sharing the stage with everyone from Iron Maiden and Slipknot and dominating festivals such as Download, Rock Star Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and OZZfest. They'd done everything the way that a metal band is supposed to. However, even with all of this success, Heafy and his cohorts guitarist Corey Beaulieu, bassist Paolo Gregoletto, and drummer Nick Augusto had gotten frustrated with the state of metal and yearned to break out.
'In my opinion, this album really was a response to what we've ever done as a band and everything we're seeing in contemporary music,' declares Heafy. 'We want to take metal a step further. We're not going to tell anyone what In Waves means. We want to put imagination and creativity back in the mind of the listener.'
Trivium let the music do the talking this time around. The title track and first single hinges on a pummeling polyrhythmic guitar groove that breaks into one of the band's most infectious choruses just before a haunting guitar melody sails off into the distance. Rather than simply modifying their sound, they expanded it with elegant sonic textures and crushingly calculated chaos. The technical prowess is tempered by a melodic sensibility often unexplored by bands in this genre.
About the song, Gregoletto explains, 'To me, the 'In Waves' riff is what anger and hopelessness I felt would sound like if emoted musically. It was the first riff I wrote after we got off the road for Shogun, and it's inspirationally somewhere in between the technicality of Meshuggah and the straightforward groove of Sepultura, but it channels a new intensity. After that song, we weren't afraid to push ourselves out of familiar territory anymore.'
'It was the turning point for the music,' Heafy reveals. 'It's got the simplest chorus we've ever had, and it meant something different to each of us. There's minimalist spin.'
However, that simplicity breeds complexity as each song takes on a life of its own. 'Inception of the End' drops from a speedy thrash air raid into an anthemic arena-filling refrain, while vocal harmonies climb alongside schizophrenic screams on 'Watch the World Burn.' 'Of All These Yesterdays' takes flight on a propulsive hum and an off-kilter solo. Everything culminates during 'Leaving This World Behind,' which pairs a classically influenced acoustic guitar with a chilling scream and an orchestral, electronic undercurrent. 'Built to Fall' shatters an off-time riff with a hyper-charged hook that sees Heafy channeling a new charisma.
The entire album moves and shifts like one fluid entity. Heafy adds, 'There was a conscious effort to tie everything together. Since we pulled back on so much of the musical complexity, it was about the song and we were able to connect on a basic level. It wasn't about trying to insert another big word in the lyrics or another solo. We weren't worried about showing how technical or brutal we could sound. It was about making something great. When I simplified the lyrics, they were able to be translated into multiple definitions, expanding the album to a multi-purposed work of art.'
(Photo courtesy of Brian Lutz @ www.hadlostudio.com)
In order to paint this aural pastiche, the band retreated to Paint It Black Studios in Altamonte Springs, FL with production triumvirate Colin Richardson [Machine Head, Bullet for My Valentine], Martyn 'Ginge' Ford and Carl Bown in early 2011. The band had already conceived the vision for the album over two years of writing and volleying visual concepts around, so recording allowed the band to continue to experiment. Surprisingly, Heafy didn't turn to his iPod for inspiration though.
'On this record, my influences weren't music,' he explains. 'My influences were film and directors like David Lynch, Lars Von Trier, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Christopher Nolan. It was also the idea of modern art. I used to not get modern art and museums. I went to The Louvre four years ago and it got me into classical art. Then I started getting into modern art. I like modern art because it completely disregards all of the pre-set rules. Contemporary art can be anything. There is no right or wrong. That encouraged me on In Waves. We made the music we wanted to make.'
In order to keep pushing the envelope, Trivium experimented with a myriad of sounds and textures, employing everything from cardboard tubes, fire extinguishers, napkins, and out-of-tune pianos to make sounds. Working with new drummer Nick Augusto in the studio also helped facilitate the process. Beaulieu exclaims, 'Nick's a fantastic drummer, and he soaked everything up really quickly. We moved at such a fast pace together and we were able to accomplish a lot more in a short amount of time. It was a very creative, fast-moving, and enjoyable experience. Having that positive environment with Nick made it a lot more fun and it made the songs better.'
However, the songs will ultimately continue to get better as their vision comes into clearer focus. Heafy sums it up best. 'If a CD is like the soundtrack to a movie, In Waves is the entire film. It's everything. It's the soundtrack, the visuals, and the packaging. It's a full-on visual experience rather than being the standard format. The whole purpose of art is to inspire creativity and other art. No one made the album we wanted to hear yet so we made it ourselves. It's time to take metal to another place and bring in new people.'
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'In Waves' was released worldwide on August 9, 2011 (North America) via Roadrunner Records. According to interviews (as well as album reviews), this seemed to be a turning point for Trivium and how they approached their creative side and the creation of an album. I think, like most bands, that it was simply a maturity thing and them wanting more out of an album than previously before. Now mind you, this is all speculation. But compared to previous albums I have listened to, 'In Waves' is a beast of it's own...
1. Capsizing the Sea (instrumental)
2. In Waves
3. Inception of the End
4. Dusk Dismantled
5. Watch the World Burn
6. Black
7. A Skyline's Severance
8. Built to Fall
9. Caustic Are the Ties That Bind
10. Forsake Not the Dream
11. Chaos Reigns
12. Of All These Yesterdays
13. Leaving This World Behind (instrumental)
"By and large, the heavy metal community can be counted on to listen with open ears and form individual, unbiased opinions, but some prejudices still run deep, and the members of Trivium have been on the receiving end of several of these throughout their career. Cursed by their own precociousness, musical malleability and, most problematic, their earnest ambition and self-confidence, the quartet has quite simply been blacklisted by a considerable swathe of listeners, led by self-appointed officers of the heavy metal poseur police, and helped none by their contract with leading heavy metal label Roadrunner, whose very success can ironically become an albatross around its bands' necks. As a result, Trivium have been dodging verbal barbs and metaphoric flying tomatoes ever since the modern melodic thrash of sophomore album Ascendancy (their first for Roadrunner, coincidentally), landed them on magazine covers and on stages with Metallica, who they proceeded to inadvisably clone on hit-and-miss third opus, The Crusade, before delivering a more brutal and technical sound on fourth album Shogun. But, since the latter still smacked unfairly against the immovable wall of the aforementioned prejudices, the group -- now armed with new drummer Nick Augusto -- obviously saw no other recourse than to revisit the less overwrought style of Ascendancy on its fifth studio album, 2011's In Waves. In doing so, Trivium prove that template to be their honest-to-goodness comfort zone, as song after song whips by, wedding equal doses of neo-thrash aggression and accessibility, represented by frontman Matt Heafy's alternating clean and gruff vocals as well as his and fellow guitarist Corey Beaulieu's jagged staccato riffs and tight-knit harmonies. Yes, results may vary from song to song, depending on the listener's tastes, but not Trivium's commitment to crafting fully realized, self-sufficient tracks under the stewardship of producer Colin Richardson (who stepped in for the less versatile Jason Suecof) and veteran Roadrunner A&R man Monte Conner (the man responsible for signing Sepultura, Cynic, and many more). But, naturally, despite all these merits (and, sure, imperfections, too), Trivium will probably be vilified once again for taking the same sort of creative backward step that the fans typically clamor for from Metallica, Slayer, and other bands on down; it's the essence of the Florida band's "can't win" lot in life, but there's always hope that this will change, in time." -All Music
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(Photo courtesy of Brian Lutz @ www.hadlostudio.com)
"Casting a critical eye, it’s probably right to say that In Waves continues this trend. Then again, it’s possibly only fair to say that at least here the group have managed to master these styles in a manner to which they are afforded a stamp of some individuality. The album’s better songs – of which a towering Black and the inventive if not precisely brilliantly titled Capsize the Sea are just two – even hark back to the time when their creators sounded fresh and exciting. This may not be quite enough for Trivium to turn back the hands of the clock to the point where the world lay at their fretboards, but the notion that this is a band whose best days lie behind them is one that, at least for now, is resting on ice." -BBC Music
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(Photo courtesy of Brian Lutz @ www.hadlostudio.com)
"Not that recent efforts have been odious; it’s just that Trivium have yet to craft the landmark opus they’ve always seemed poised to. In Waves won’t blow away anybody either, but it’s a commendable effort from a band that still doesn’t have a member over 27. Opener 'Capsizing the Sea' makes it seem like things are going to be adventurous here: With its spooky, distorted piano plinks and booming snare hits that lock in with palm-muted guitar, the track is one of the most interesting on the entire album, even though it runs only 90 seconds. From there, things become more straightforward but are still varied enough to captivate. 'Watch the World Burn' is an obvious standout, as its brazen hook and staccato riffs rank near the top of the band’s finest moments. The chugging grandeur of the title track features torrential force and a howl-along, neckbreaking refrain, similar to what was all over Ascendancy. The kings of metal Trivium ain’t (yet), but most of the time, things are looking up.
What’s disheartening about In Waves, however, is its lack of a clear identity; the band seem to be targeting too much at once. First off, the metalcore breakdowns, though never vital to the band’s success, sound forced when they show up. Secondly, Heafy splits his time on the mic between singing and screaming but typically lacks the stinging conviction that his lyrics demand. It all poses a glaring question: Exactly who is this album for? Even Trivium seem to be confused." -Consequence of Sound
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(Photo courtesy of Brian Lutz @ www.hadlostudio.com)
"Trivium have not topped themselves. They have not beaten the intricate and musically complex feats they accomplished on Shogun, nor will they have satisfied every fanatic that became so devoted to the sound of Ascendancy so many years ago. Some may even label this admirable endeavour as a downfall simply because of its difference. Those that do are neither right nor wrong, but perhaps missing the point. Trivium have achieved so much in the way of progression that their brilliant journey has often been mislabelled by the ignorant as ‘selling out’ or ‘softening up’. This couldn’t be any further from the truth, and I’m glad that we can look upon In Waves as an example of why. Both sides, the soft and the heavy, the light and the dark, the commercial and the underground, exist brilliantly together on this record. When it comes to sheer diversity, the most universal of measurements with which the value of a musician can be genuinely weighed, Trivium have struck a winner with In Waves. I can only wish them a lucrative and rich future where this album will be looked on by the band as a personal milestone, a symbol of triumph and overall a sound, beautifully solid record. Because that’s exactly what it is." -Alt Sound
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For more information on Trivium and their tour schedule, releases and more, then check them out at the following official links:
- www.trivium.org
- www.facebook.com/TriviumOfficial
- www.myspace.com/trivium
- www.youtube.com/trivium
- www.twitter.com/TriviumOfficial
- www.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/trivium/
*TRIVIUM WILL BE PERFORMING ON SATURDAY (THE 11TH) AT THE JAGERMEISTER EAST STAGE FROM 16:15-17:00*
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