700. Trivium / Vengeance Falls. 2013. 4/5

I was looking forward to this album for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I think possibly for the first time since I have been listening to Trivium, I was ready for a new release from the band. I enjoyed In Waves but never really got fully connected to it. This time around however, I also have the knowledge that I will be seeing the band live for the first time at the upcoming Soundwave Festival, which also raised my excitement at hearing the new album.
I had the album at work, and played it on constant rotation, but after three or four listening cycles I was still slightly ambivalent about it. Sometimes you need a trigger to get you into an album, something that finally hits home for you that the band or the album works, and from that point you can see (or hear) it everywhere. At that point you find that certain element that you couldn't necessarily find on previous listens. In most circumstances it is one song on the album that really draws you in, and then the rest will follow. For me that song turned out to be one of the bonus tracks, a cover of two of my favourite Misfits songs, "Skulls" and "We Are 138". "Skulls... We Are 138" is an awesome tribute to an awesome band, and is a wonderful homage to the original versions. Hearing the passion that went into this was my trigger, and the rest of the album fell into place as a result.

It feels as though this album has been drawn into a more commercial aspect, if only because my wife has heard this now and doesn't hate it, unlike Ascendancy for instance. It is a more mature sound from those early albums, no doubt directed by producer David Draiman. And while some long time and fanatical supporters of the band may start to feel there is a degree of selling out involved, I can only say that I really enjoy this album. The production is slick, and each instrument is clearly defined in the mix. Nick Augusto's drumming is simply superb, his precision is a joy to air-drum along to. The guitars too and terrific, with some fantastic riffs and lineage. Matt Heafy's vocals, for me, are just getting better and better. There is little doubt that there is a toning down and lessening of the growling vocals from the band's early days, but I really think they are being compensated by the quality of the music as well. While I always felt that the songs on other albums lacked power when they were dominated by clear vocals, here on Vengeance Falls that is certainly not the case. This is a complete package musically, and Heafy does a superb job.
My favourite songs from the album include "Villainy Thrives", "At the End of This War" "Vengeance Falls" and "Strife".

This is the fourth successive day at work where Vengeance Falls has been the only album on rotation, and it is still getting better with each listen. If that isn't a ringing endorsement to the album then I don't know what is.