Trivium - IN WAVES

[MesaGod666]

I picked up the new Trivium album IN WAVES (Special Edition) yesterday and I gotta say that this is one of the best albums I've listened to, production-wise, in a VERY long time. The song arrangements are familiar, but not standard. They definitely have a different and more technical feel while retaining a straight forward approach.

The guitar tones are amazing (Mesa Dual Recto 3 Chan + Marshall JVM) and the overall mix is definitely designed for metal but it sounds more...RPG Video Gamey. They definitely took some artistic liberties when mixing this thing down.

Vocals are really solid. Screaming is good, but the melodies and the overall arrangement of these vocals are pretty unique. Definitely something that has the feel of being fully developed yet not OVER produced.

Probably the best Colin Richardson produced album to date.

Material-wise, it's hit or miss for me. There is a ton of variety on this album. I enjoyed listening to the whole album all the way through, but there were some songs that I felt were pushed beyond the realm of good taste and artistic liberty into the "HEY, WE HAVE A NICKELBACK/SEETHER RADIO FRIENDLY SONG!" type direction. While these songs are not cringeworthy, even with the four "radio friendly" songs (3 for sure snatchrobbers and one borderline crapper), it's still a solid album. There isn't a single shining star on the album either...it feels that the performance from the band overall is the star and not any one single musician. If anything more was added (material-wise) it would be too much, if there was anything less than what's actually on the album it would feel inadequate. It's just a very interesting and unique album.

Even if you don't like Trivium, you can't argue about the production. Colin Richardson brought his A-game and delivered in every sense of the word.

 

[JCDenton6]

It's a really good album!

 

[Jackie]

Don't like it very much. Too "whatever-core". There are good songs on the album though, there's no doubt but overall ain't one of my favourite recent releases.

 

[ryjan]

The guitars are kind of generic sounding. Same sterile boosted recto rhythm and beapy lead passages. Same as 500 other bands out there. Same thing with the "vocals". You can cut and paste any vocalist from this genre and not miss a beat.
I really wanted to like this band but it seems like everyone is remaking the same song and they all play it the same.

 

[YellowJacket]

The guitars are kind of generic sounding. Same sterile boosted recto rhythm and beapy lead passages. Same as 500 other bands out there. Same thing with the "vocals". You can cut and paste any vocalist from this genre and not miss a beat.
I really wanted to like this band but it seems like everyone is remaking the same song and they all play it the same.

Well, this band is definitely the 'flavour of the month' but they go back awhile so perhaps they are at least somewhat responsible for creating this genre. Of course I'm not up on the 'family tree' of rock genres so I have no clue about that. Personally, I kind of jive with Metalcore. It sounds like the ******* step son of Melodic Punk Rock (Bad Religion), Emo, and Metal, which is fine by me. I'm not getting all ::connoisseurmode:: with rock 'n' roll. I have enough cork sniffing to deal with in music school and it is honestly tiresome.

That being said Heafy needs to take some diction classes, BADLY. I was literally laughing my ass off hearing him scream "toast and pizza" (Dusk Dismantled) and "egg whites" (In Waves). Unintentional humour is the BEST!