Tirades of Truth: Trivium - The Crusade

Continuing to preview new albums by looking back at old ones, today we look at Trivium's The Crusade. A little history on Trivium, this is a young band. Their debut was recorded while they were still in their teens. I wasn't too impressed with the debut, mainly because of the production. Their next album Ascendancy is a classic. No filler, every song works. Perfect blend of screams and clean singing. Something else you need to know about the band is their worship of Metallica. I love Metallica as much as the next guy, but I think their "love" made The Crusade a little weaker.

The album starts off with a pretty good song, Ignition, but one thing that pops out right away is the total absence of screams. It's all clean vocals. Some say Matt sounds like a young James Hetfield, but I didn't think so. After awhile you get used to the vocals and realize it's not a bad thing.

Musically, this album is pure thrash...80's - 90's thrash. Tight drumming, great riffs, and some insane guitar solos. The last song, The Crusade, is an instrumental (another Metallica worship?). It is probably the best or close to the best song on the album. It does bring back memories of classic Metallica instrumentals from Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets the way the song comes "full circle". Other songs as just as good, Entrance of Conflagration is killer. In fact all the songs are great. It's the vocals you have to get used to to enjoy the album.

So why didn't this album work for me? Mainly because it didn't sound like Trivium. It reminded me of Motley Crue's self titled album in 1994. This was the one album without lead singer Vince Neil. It was their best album since Shout at the Devil, but it didn't sell...why? People couldn't get past the fact Motley Crue didn't sound like Motley Crue. The band admitted that maybe they should have released it as a different band. Trivium might have wanted to do the same thing. The Crusade is a good album, but it doesn't feel like a Trivium album.

Shogun is due out in September and the band has released one song so far. The screams are back...which is a good thing. They have another song on the Madden 09 soundtrack is below. I think this album will be much better than The Crusade and only time will tell.