Trivium - 'What The Dead Men Say' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. IX

2. What The Dead Men Say

3. Catastrophist

4. Amongst The Shadows & The Stones

5. Bleed Into Me

6. The Defiant

7. Sickness Unto You

8. Scattering The Ashes

9. Bending The Arc To Fear

10. The Ones We Leave Behind

Florida Metalcore heavyweights Trivium have returned for their ninth studio album 'What The Dead Men Say', the widely anticipated followup to 2017’s acclaimed 'The Sin And The Sentence'.

The album begins with instrumental track ‘IX’, which serves as almost an extended intro for the title track ‘What The Dead Men Say’, which is a juggernaut of a track with or without ‘IX’ preceding it. Each member of Trivium is on top form, not just on this track, but throughout the entire album. The guitar work from Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu is spectacular, finding the balance between heavy and melodic perfectly, and Heafy’s vocals carry an immense amount of power as usual, it serves as one of the best openings to an album I’ve heard in a little while.

‘Catastrophist’, the lead single from the album, follows suit in similar fashion with a grandiose scale, and was the perfect choice to be the first single that Trivium released for 'What The Dead Men Say'. It encapsulates the album perfectly, with heavy, punishing riffs and technical drums from Alex Bent blended with soaring, melodic vocals that maintain the gravitas in Heafy’s voice, not to mention the solos and breakdowns, and Heafy’s phenomenal screams. It’s six and a half minutes of Metalcore perfection, and with lyrics dealing with the themes of humanity in a crisis, it's extremely fitting for the current state of the world.

There is not a bad track on the album, but the standout for me is ‘Bleed Into Me’, which feels almost ballad like in the chorus, but still maintains the a tonne of attitude and aggression, particularly with Paolo Gregoletto’s incredible bass riff that the track begins with, it baffles me that Gregoletto isn’t mentioned in conversations about the best Metal bassists. This bassline is complimented perfectly by Bent’s drums and the more stripped back feeling of the guitars within the verses, with everything coming to a powerful crescendo in the chorus, with a deeply personal feel to it.

As I mentioned previously, there is not a bad song on 'What The Dead Men Say'. Frontman Matt Heafy stated that “We've found a really great place to exist in this world. We love Melodic Death Metal, we love Death and Black Metal, and we love Hardcore. 'What the Dead Men Say' is everything we do on one record." Personally, I am someone who thinks that Trivium has never made a bad album, and this is no exception. It feels like a love letter to their dedicated fans, whilst also being accessible for newcomers who haven’t heard anything they’ve released prior. To me, this album cements Trivium as one of the most important Metal bands of the modern era, and I would be surprised if this doesn’t land them a Grammy win, let alone a nomination.