The Crusade - Trivium

Guys, sincere apologies for letting another week go by between posts. It seems my brain has been rather preoccupied of late, as it has been littered with questions. Now those questions are answered, and I can finally share with all of you. But before I do, consider the following:

-What if Metallica learned how to sing harmonies?

-What if Metallica had a drummer that didn't suck?

-What if Trans-Siberian Orchestra's album artwork was drawn by Frank Frazetta?
(For those of you who are about to Google search Frank Frazetta, let me save you the time - he was the artist that did all the Molly Hatchet album covers. Free history lesson, courtesy of Synic Spins.)

-What if James Hetfield was Asian?

Maybe that last one wasn't entirely necessary, but ladies and gentlemen have no fear, for your hero Synic has the answer.

Trivium.

These guys are an established and well-known band who have been around for over 20 years now, if you can believe that. And one of their biggest fans, someone near and dear to my own heart, asked me to review one of their albums. And after getting 3 songs into their record Ascendancy, she said "WAIT! Do The Crusade instead! But also review this one song from Ascendancy!"
Well... ok, why not.

2 minutes into "Ignition," the first track on the record, I texted the girl that requested this album saying "These guys are like if Metallica did a duet with Mushroomhead." I also found myself thinking that if the SAW movie franchise was a song, it would be this. And now that I've heard the whole album, my thoughts have not changed. (Whether that statement is good or bad is dependent on your opinion of the SAW movies, I suppose.) Though this album is drastically different from the 3 tracks of Ascendancy that I heard, so maybe they were still finding themselves at this point? I don't know, that's something you'd have to ask the girl that requested this album, or another fan of the band.

She specifically requested I sink my teeth into "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr" from Ascendancy, so here we go. It's really a good thing this blog doesn't give me a character limit in these posts, cause God dammit that song title is really a novel to write. Anyway, the song itself is as I expected. a badass riff, screamed lyrics, and a chorus featuring actual singing, and even some harmonies. That said, the chorus was my favorite part of the whole song. It took me back to a long time ago when she showed me that song for the first time. It was strange to me then, but vaguely familiar to me now.

Me and speed metal, or thrash, whichever you prefer to call it (I'm not big on semantics), we are not friends. You can name countless speed metal bands and I will turn my nose up at all of them. So keeping that in mind, I will be as objective as possible here.

Lyrically, these guys are more than brilliant. Some of their song titles and use of SAT-words remind me of a metal Bad Religion. Which, in black and white sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it? Building off that - their song "The Rising" was punk as hell. Watch the music video for it if you don't believe me. The sound isn't punk, but the spirit is there.

Musically, they are more than solid. Each track has another killer riff that is more than enough to melt your face off. Their solos are a little technical for my taste, but with today's metal formula where every track needs its own solo, I guess it's just the nature of the beast. So I won't fault them too much for that.

So at the end of the day, will I ever listen to this whole record again? No. Probably not. (Sorry, Kim)
However, did I hate every second of listening to it? No. No I didn't. In fact, I promised Kim long ago that if Trivium ever toured with a band I liked, I would go see them with her. And after actually listening to some of this band's material, I stand by that promise. I don't think I'll hate it.

My closing thoughts are that the album's finale and title-track, the 8+ minute long instrumental, sounds like what you would hear in the elevator down to Hell.

The Crusade - Trivium

10 - 10 - 2006

1. Ignition

2. Detonation

3. Entrance of the Conflagration

4. Anthem (We Are the Fire)

5. Unrepentant

6. And Sadness Will Sear

7. Becoming the Dragon

8. To The Rats

9. This World Can't Tear Us Apart

10. Tread The Floods

11. Contempt Breeds Contamination

12. The Rising

13. The Crusade

Favorite Track: The Rising

Least Favorite Track: Ignition

Rating: 7.2