1139. Trivium / In the Court of the Dragon. 2021. 4/5

It’s hard to believe that, in their relatively short period of existence, Trivium has just released their tenth studio album. In the ‘old’ days, and that generally covers the period before the internet arrived and allowed music sharing to become a more accessible thing, bands would release a new album every year, sometimes even two, because in those days you could still make a living out of selling vinyl albums. In the modern day that is much more difficult, and so the desire to crate and record albums with a relatively short time span between them becomes less motivating than getting out there and playing live shows where the band can make its living. And yet in recent times Trivium have been at their most prolific. The pandemic triggered different responses in the music industry, oscillating between frantic energy to sofa sitting stagnation. Trivium seem to have settled much closer to the first description than the latter. Matt Heafy’s Twitch live videos have been entertaining, and beyond that it is obvious that the band worked as hard as they could during those lockdown and isolation months in putting together new material. Indeed, Trivium’s ninth album, What the Dead Men Say, had only been released in April 2020, and yet by June of 2020 the band was already well into the writing mode for their next album. Pandemic days utilised to their fullest. The first single from the album surfaced in mid 2021, In the Court of the Dragon, and was followed by the new album’s release of the same name.

From a personal point of view, it feels and sounds like Trivium have been cresting a wave over the last five years, refining and improving all parts of their craft such that their first couple of albums feel like an almost different band. And I believe that in a good way, because they have retained everything that was great about that start and made it into a more distinct and fan friendly sound. Though, to be fair, there are others out there who distinctly dislike the way the band has gone about here. It comes across perfectly in the opening tracks, with the opening of “X” blasting into the title track at top speed and intensity. The confidence the band has in their direction, from Heafy’s stronger than ever vocal chords with both scream and clear alike, along with the guitars and blazing drums, is evident early.
This crashes into “Like a Sword Over Damocles” which combines plenty of fiery riffs with a soaring chorus that highlights the sound that Trivium has ascended to. “Feast of Fire” has an interesting blend of both radio friendly hard rock style that also combines some crunching riffling to offset any thoughts of selling out. “A Crisis of Revelation” and “The Shadow of the Abattoir” offset each other, with “A Crisis of Revelation” incorporating an almost melodic prog metal sound – if such a thing exists, maybe I just made it up – while “The Shadow of the Abattoir” reveals that more standardised enjoyment of great guitar riffs along with a great chorus.
“No Way Back But Through” is highlighted by the catchy riff and easily singalong vocals that make this a fast paced song that keeps the fire lighted throughout. “Fall Into Your Hands” comes back in a much heavier and dominating way, with Heafy’s harsh vocals complementing the harder drumming and guttural riffing that cuts back in. This is followed by “From Dawn to Decadence” which changes tempo and intensity throughout, and defines itself by Heafy’s high velocity harsh vocals being brilliantly doubled along on the drums, which makes the song. The album is concluded with “The Phalanx”, a song that form all reports was written during the session for the Shogun album, but was reassessed and rebuilt to suit the band’s current sound, and it is a nice way to bring the proceedings to an end.

Through their whole career, Trivium have been hit and miss with me. Either the album just clicks with me from the first moment I put the CD in the tray and press play, or I find myself giving the album several listens and searching for a way in, some sort of hook to grab a hold of that makes me ‘get’ the album, and then I am away. And almost without fail, over their whole discography, if I haven’t found myself happy to put the album back on without a struggle after those first three or four tries, then I’m pretty much done and have never been able to come back and try again. And believe me, with those albums that didn’t grab me on release, I have tried to come back later and see if I can discover what I had missed – and I never have. And it isn’t because I don’t like their style, their mix of metal core and a more traditional heavy metal that they obviously grew up with, and the mix of both growling and clear vocals from Matt Heafy, and the thundering of the guitars against the double kick drumming. All of that I like and enjoy.
But for me with Trivium, it appears that I need the right mix of those things to keep me interested. And it has been more over their recent albums that I have found this. Which means that the morphing and maturing of their music over the last decade has been what has appealed to me the most. For me that started with the album “Vengeance Falls” and has continued with every album following that.
While there are the early fans who have been disappointed in what the band has released in the last decade, for me it has been a triumph. I personally think this is a terrific album, especially turned up loud to allow it to engulf you rather than just trying to have it as background music. It may not be their best, but it is best enough.