Trivium - Silence In the Snow (Album Review)

Heavy is the head that once wore the crown... Remember when Trivium exploded on the scene way back in 2005 with Ascendancy, an album that just shot like a bolt of much needed energy in the metal/heavy metal/metal-core/etc scene(s). Vocalist Matt Heafy was the toast of the town and the band's album Ascendancy was a barn burner of an album. Ten years and five albums after Ascendancy Trivium is releasing Silence in the Snow. I have to state that I've always pulled for Trivium for some reason. I thoroughly enjoyed Ascendancy. I thought The Crusade and Shogun had their moments. Their last couple albums have been serviceable, but haven't wowed me. I think I just became fatigued with the band in a lot of ways. I went into Silence in the Snow hoping the band could recapture my interest. I had heard Matt Heafy had been working with a vocal coach to improve his singing and the album artwork caught my eye so I went into this one with crossed fingers.

Unfortunately and right off the bat I have to say I get a deja vu feeling of how I've felt about the last couple Trivium albums when I listen to this album. I think the album is serviceable and riffy, but ultimately leaves a lot to be desired. Over the course of their career Trivium's albums have felt a lot less immediate in the way that Ascendancy did when you first heard it. The songs had such bite and intensity. It was so immediate and I think that's why it stuck out and why the band became a bigger deal amongst many bands with a similar sound. For much of their post Ascendancy career they seem like a band dabbling with their sound trying to find the right formula and with each try losing a little of what stuck out about them in the first place. Like I said that's not to say you won't enjoy a lot of Silence In The Snow if you like the metal genre. It just comes off feeling a little stale. That could be the fault of some of the production that makes this album feel, at times, one dimensional and paint by numbers sound wise. When I listen to it the album just has a more generic kind of sound that wears on me throughout the album. I think a different producer could have really breathed some life into the songs and just roughed them up around the edges or possibly encouraged them to be a little more than what they sound like on the album. Instead the production allows the songs to fall flat most of the time. The overall sound of the album just has no attack and almost a limp feel production wise. It just didn't have that "heavy metal" intensity I hear on my favorite Trivium songs. Without it the album starts feeling a little bland deep into the track list.

Heafy's improved clean vocals do add a neat new dynamic. This isn't the first time we've heard Trivium try to do away with screaming. Ascendancy's follow-up The Crusade. Which is an album that aped Metallica a lot IMO...and not always in a bad way. That album has some really good songs on it. It axed the screaming much to fans dismay in favor of some Metallica flavored vocals. I think Silence In The Snow, due to the improved clean vocals, makes the blow a little less harsh. Heafy definitely finds his own singing voice more on this album. I do think some listeners will have a hard time without the screaming, although his vocals are one of the more interesting and neat aspects of the album. It's one of the things that I think made me go back to certain songs. It was also interesting to hear and think about just how much progress he has made with his vocal ability over the years.

This is a band that I am always excited to check out because I do think they are talented and usually provide a few songs that stick out. Silence In The Snow is the same. There are a few here or there that are pretty fun listens. This feels like a safe album for the band, but at this deep into their career safe doesn't always translate to exciting. I'm not hating this and I'm also not loving it. It's an okay addition to their discography, but for a band I once thought could wow the metal world I'm once again seeing them get farther away from what I thought they would be. They really need an album that just grabs the listener more and maybe has more of the raw emotion they had in their songs a decade ago. If I had to rank this album it definitely isn't their worst but might fall somewhere in the middle of their discography. It's worth checking out, but it's not as standout as I would have liked.