Trivium - The Sin and the Sentence

Trivium are a band who have garnered much more distaste than I believe they deserve, simply on principle by some people it seems (seeing as their obvious low point, Vengeance Falls, didn’t bring them a significant increase in negative press or fan abandonment from what I could tell). Matt Heafy may go through drummers like high school boyfriends, but Trivium’s output has been pretty consistently well written and interesting for the most part. While I do miss the grand thrash-y groove of Shogun, I was glad to see Trivium tackle better the Draiman-influenced writing style they clearly had simply imitated previously on Vengeance Falls on Silence in the Snow, an album that I think too many complained about for the lack of unclean vocals they fixated on, not realizing what a vast improvement it was over Vengeance Falls. Silence in the Snow’s weakness was not Matt Heafy’s vocals; he clearly improved his range and his technique. What brought it down was the predictability of their new writing style that replaced the diversity of In Waves and the epic scale of Shogun. Fans of course immediately took note of the return of Matt’s screams on the band’s new album, seemingly appeased by that alone, but The Sin and the Sentence peculiarly shows Trivium’s good side with a handful of tracks worthy of hypothetical placement on their earlier albums, as well as the Draiman-possessed side of them with another handful of easily forgettable throw-away tracks. Indeed, the album highlights that formulaic songwriting, not the focus on clean singing, was the issue with the past two releases.

If I could describe The Sin and the Sentence as a combination of two previous releases from the band, I would say it has the writing style of Silence in the Snow with an In Waves level of increased heaviness to it. Where it’s good, it’s Trivium in excellent form, but where it’s not, it seems like the band is trying to write alternative metal hits for late 2000′s radio. The band has pulled off a more mainstream approach to songs before, and “The Heart from Your Hate” is a great example of Trivium being able to plug something invigorating into that formula. But songs like “Other Worlds”, “Beauty in the Sorrow”, and “Endless Night” come up flat like poorly executed lab procedures. The relatively lengthy “The Revanchist” is probably the most complete and grand combination of Trivium’s older playing style with their streamlined composition process, with an infectious refrain, possibly repeated a bit excessively, but it’s definitely the best moment on the album so I don’t mind it’s being drawn out slightly. The title track, “Beyond Oblivion”, “Betrayer”, and “Thrown into the Fire” show Trivium comfortably and competently returning to favorable old ways with new spirit though, and I do hope they follow the vein of those songs, rather than of the previously mentioned hiccups, on their next release.

Again, even the weaker songs here feature Matt’s return to screaming, showing that his singing was not the problem with their recent output. I don’t want it to come across like I think Trivium has to turn around after taking a wrong turn with the more mainstream-ready writing they employ these days. I quite liked Silence in the Snow, and I quite liked The Sin and the Sentence, but their flaws are the same and Trivium better avoided those albums’ pitfalls when they weren’t writing so similarly to Disturbed. If this is the direction Trivium choose to go, I hope they can more consistently find great musical ideas next time to apply to their newer writing style, and I won’t whine for a sequel to Shogun. In the meantime, The Sin and the Sentence is a good enough addition to their name and I’m sure I’ll continue to enjoy it.