Trivium’s Silence In the Snow—A Valiant, but Melancholic Record

Here's an article I wrote for the heavy metal forum, Metal Xtreme. It is a review of Trivium's latest album, Silence In the Snow. See the original here: http://metalxtreme.com/triviums-silence-snow-valiant-melancholic-record

           Some of you may be familiar with the American heavy metal band Trivium. For those of you aren’t, they’re a power-thrash metal group from Orlando, Florida who’s style tends toward the fast and aggressive, as a good thrash band should, but there is also something epic about their sound, even in their earlier work which was more metalcore. Trivium is one of my favorite bands. Almost every song they’ve ever written is on my iPod and I own all of their studio albums, one of the few bands that I can make this claim about. So when I heard that they had a new album coming out in October, I had high hopes for it. They’ve never let me down. Until now… kind of. Let me explain.

           Silence In the Snow marks a bit of a departure from Trivium’s usual style. It is often the pleasure of Matt Heafy, the band’s front man and one of their guitarists, to sing with unclean vocals, or scream. He doesn’t do it with whole songs like in death metal, just with certain lyrics. However, Silence doesn’t have any unclean lyrics at all. Reports say that Heafy blew his voice out in 2014 and started working with vocal coach Ron Anderson teaching him a more melodic approach. Whether that’s a positive or negative is largely subjective, but for those of us who have gotten used to Heafy’s screaming, we definitely notice it missing.

          Another thing that may have added to Trivium’s altered sound is that they have a new drummer, Matt Madiro. Before him was Nick Augusto who played on In Waves (2011) and Vengeance Falls (2013). But, so what, right? Bands go through line-up changes. Well I bring it to your attention because I believe their original drummer, Travis Smith who played from Ember to Inferno (2003) to Shogun (2008), was one of the best drummers in all of heavy metal alongside others like Joey Jordison of Slipknot and The Rev of Avenged Sevenfold. Since Smith’s departure, there definitely seems to be something lacking in Trivium’s music. Drums are tricky—when they’re good, they’re fucking great; but when they’re mediocre or worse, they’re just sort of there.  Don’t misunderstand me, both In Waves and Vengeance Falls have some really great songs on them, and not everything done by Trivium before that was immaculate, but something does feel missing since Shogun.

           While I was listening to Silence In the Snow, I also noted something unusual about Trivium—their music on this album has a strong melancholic and somber tune, almost like the band is mourning a loss. It’s a quality to their music that isn’t usually heard except for select songs. On Silence, I heard it in every song, including the bonus tracks. There were also more songs on this album that seemed to have (vaguely) romantic elements. The three songs where I picked this up are “The Ghost That’s Haunting You”, “Until the World Goes Cold”, and “The Thing That’s Killing Me”. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Trivium being romantic; in fact, one of my favorites of theirs, “This World Can’t Tear Us Apart”, I would consider to be a true power ballad (unlike songs like “Silent Lucidity” or “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”). It’s just that Trivium isn’t known for romantic or sappy music. Again, it feels like the band has suffered a loss or Heafy broke up with his girlfriend. (Maybe he did, I don’t get involved in the personal lives of musicians.)

          Something that also bothered me about this album was that there were songs that seemed almost like filler to me: “Dead and Gone”, “Pull Me From the Void”, and “Rise Above the Tides”. Despite two of the three making it onto my iPod, they all struck me as not quite good enough. Very few songs are 100% perfect, but some songs are better than others. And then some songs are 50/50, or have the bad about them hold down the good (that’s why I don’t listen to 30 Seconds to Mars or Slayer). These three songs all teeter on that 50/50 edge with “Pull Me” having what’s good about it be held back by what’s bad about it. I mean, I want to like these songs more than I do, but I just can’t.

            So, despite all this grayness and badness, is there any reason to listen to Silence? I would argue there is. For me, the best songs on this album are the titular song, “Silence In the Snow” which was originally written for Shogun, “The Ghost” and “The Thing” despite their melancholic romantic overtones, and the bonus tracks, “Cease All Your Fire” and “The Darkness of My Mind” (which gets my vote as the best song on Silence). “The Ghost” and “The Thing” appeal to me because I’m just an angsty teenager at heart, but the other three are all about as close as one can get to what Trivium should be, like what they were in their heyday. These three are fast, furious, and have Trivium’s stylistic groove that makes you want to dance, and not just head bang. As for the other songs that I haven’t mentioned, they’re good enough to make my personal cut, but there’s nothing so remarkable about them that they’re worth mentioning. The biggest problem with Silence is that while it has the musical stylings and progressions of Trivium, that little indiscernible spark that is undeniably Trivium is missing.

              In conclusion, is this album worth getting? Despite my review, I say yes, to both the new listener and Trivium fans of old. Fans will be slightly disappointed and underwhelmed with the presentation of Silence In the Snow, but there are gems here. As for the new listener, you could do worse than listen to Trivium. And who knows, my review may have been negative enough for you to lower your expectations and be completely blown away by what you actually hear. Trivium has that ability.