Trivium - Shogun [Review]

Trivium released their latest album recently titled "Shogun" after what seemed to be the weirdest career move these guys ever decided to take on "The Crusade" they shaped up and returned to their original pace with the formula that suits them best, "The Crusade" was a drastic leap of faith, when they completely abandoned their original sound they left A LOT of people disappointed, their switch into sounding like a Metallica Tribute band wasn't the best idea ...I'm not saying it was a bad album (I would've enjoyed it by another band), just wasn't the best idea for them at a stage where they're developing their own sound, well on with The Review

The album is produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Stone Sour, Death Angel, Rush) who puts his touch on making the album the most accessible it could be.

Shogun seems to pick up where Ascendancy left off with a very progressive approach on the song writing process, Matt and Corey bleed out riffs filled with ingredients, some songs could be split up into 2 or 3 other songs because of the amount of variety in riffs in each song, they keep throwing riffs at you and they all sound crushing in their own way, songs like “Torn Between Scylla And Charybdis" and "Kirisute Gomen" (although I didn't enjoy this track the first time I heard it) have a wide variety of riffing on them, the whole album actually and they pull it off just fine, Travis doesn't disappoint as usual, his drumming is always top notch, and never ceases to amaze the listener..

The band show off some of the catchiest tunes they ever wrote on songs like "Down From The Sky" and "Of Prometheus And The Crucifix".

The album has a wide variety of music, songs like "He Who Spawned The Furies" explores new grounds for the band, "Insurrection" has so many speedy riffs blasting one after the other.

The title track is like a medley of all Trivium's work so far, some people might find it a bit similar to Dream Theater's song structures.

In conclusion Shogun would've been the perfect follow up to "Ascendancy." It would've blown away everyone's mind, with how technically driven and well structured the songs are, Trivium gets away with a lot of riffing on the album, Matt's vocals are in the right place again, and the overall sound is what Trivium intended to sound like when they first came out (I'll just consider The Crusade a bonus disc that came along half way between Ascendancy and Shogun)

Some of my favorite moments on the album so far :

"Like Callisto To A Star In Heaven" at 3:08 the song has some haunting riffs and a haunting solo to tag along


"Down From The Sky" has a very melodic chorus


"Throes Of Perdition" has a killer opening riff

Rating: 7.5/10

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Since Trivum are anal about their music, you can check out 6 tracks from Shogun on their Official Mypsace