You won't find an album from 2006 that is more derivative than
Trivium's
"The Crusade". The band boldly promised that it would be a "Master of Puppets" for the 2000s, and they pretty much delivered on that promise (or was it a threat?) American radio - for some reason that only the gods know why - decided to hand pick this band as the new leaders of heavy metal. And what a shame it is too, since they are now, more than ever, little else than a
Metallica coverband. They want to be
Metallica so badly that they even had singer Matt ditch his screaming approach for a Hetfield-esque growl. The music was put through the database of all things thrashy and comes out like a light thrash mish mash of Judas Priest, Slayer,
Metallica,
Iron Maiden and others. Riffs, hooks, etc are copied right out of the pages of those bands histories. And when you least expect it (maybe not too unsurprisingly) they give their sticky fingered lifted riffs a knockout overdose of modern "metalcore". The effect is enough to make the most true hearted metal fan gag a bit.
"The Crusade" is bursting at the seams with moments that are anything but original. Its one flash of deja vu right after the other. That puzzling feeling of "haven't I heard this somewhere before?" With the answer being "yes...another song from a better band..."An assault of shameless rip offs (or would that be "tributes"?) that clutter the disc and leave not a shred of originality to be found.
The songs are aplenty, but one is much like the other with a riff change here and a solo switched there. Even the guitar solos seem lackluster and disjointed. It's like they just shoved them in anywhere they could, whether they really fit the song at that point - or belonged in the track at all for that matter. Its messy songwriting, but it is heavy. They get brownie points for that at least. Which get taken away for the lyrics as fast as they are awarded. Metal bands are often not known for the greatest of poetry in their works, but
Trivium take it back to the old school. Not just any old school, but one on a third grade level. For all its weighty subject matter, and lofty intentions to drive home political views and what not with grandeur, the lyrical content seems more in line with the maturity of a very angry grade schooler. A tenacious but not particularly gifted tyke who caught five minutes of the evening news and picked up on the adult discussion about it, and is trying to seem worldly and above his level. He does this by discussing it at the most primitive of wordplay with such genius gems as
"Bury you in a coffin made of your A coffin made of your deceptions" to identify just one silly section out of many. Its appreciative that they tried to be deep, but they just did not try hard enough. It must have been a busy day on the tour bus when the lyric session writing went down. Much like with the messy songwriting that received the same attentive care (or lack thereof).
There are a few good songs here that managed to somehow worm their way out. With all the subtlety of a sledgehammer the band covers the murder of Andrea Yates five children with
"Entrance of the Conflagration". Miraculously, if you can look past the old news theme and simple "Yes I Can Read - Step One" type lyrics, it manages to nail a nice hook if nothing else. Disturbingly, alot of this album is pulled from old headlines dealing with dastardly deaths and written about on a child speak level with no grace, mystery, or tact whatsoever.
"Unrepentant" covers Nazir Ahmad's murder of his daughters and stepdaughter with such charming lyrical snippets as:
"For your honor, you will slaughter, everyone of your daughters." Yes, he was a sick madman. Does he need more time in the spotlight even though the final spin is not a positive one? And should these ancient newsflash headlines be boiled down to such an elementary state that such tragic events are now exposed as fodder for an uncreative band to take advantage of? The whole idea of it, handled so shoddily just brings the album down even more, to a stomach sickening, voyeuristically perverse level.
Elsewhere
"Ignition" sounds so close to "Puppets" it could have been a B-side, still it reeks of being regurgitated garbage. Matt nails the Hetfield impression until about halfway through when it turns from a fiercely guttural, angered delivery to more of a drawn out whine. From a whirlwind battery to weak whining, it just doesn't get much more pathetic than this.
"Tread the Floods" is especially notable. This one draws on the spirits of
Iron Maiden of yore without being a total copy machine. Yet the rest suffer from sameness and the disc flows together haphazardly. Its difficult to pinpoint when one song ends and the other begins, they are all so alike and wallow in their unidentifiability with pride. Matt does his Hetfield impression over the entire lot and while the musicianship is not terrible, it could have been better. His supporting musicians are also doing their own odes to the
Metallica of past, and manage to come up short in every possible way. Whether the riffs fit or not doesn't really matter when they are just noodling for even more pointless musical mess. But its heavy! Yes, it is heavy. The drums are tinny and the bass gets swallowed up by everything else. Even my monster of a subwoofer could not coax the bass out very well. Its just buried alive in this avalanche of a mix.
The few enamoured with the disc are immediately going to point to the instrumental. No it doesn't degrade itself by being another "Puppet". Instead it seems like the band just jammed every decent riff and solo in that they couldn't work into the other songs. It was either the scrap heap or shove it in here, and they chose the obvious solution. This makes for eight minutes of mind numbing instrumental wankery with no rhyme, reason or structure. The disjointed leaping from one shredding tangent to another is headache inducing and utterly boring. Does this band have one ounce of personality in their bones? A personality that wasn't borrowed on loan from others? Every idea is stolen property with no apologies. But with this much blatant copying and pasting, an apology would just bring down a hailstorm of ridicule.
"This World Can't Tear Us Apart" runs through a quick pacing and is drenched in 80s pop cheese lyrics. Hamfistedly created and horribly out of place, its hard to tell if its an ode to finding religion or a weird love story.
"And Sadness Will Sear" tries the slower moody route but the melancholy only manages to penetrate the song so much with Matt Heafy yelling on top of it. Not to mention the plethora of generic riffs that populate the tune like festering old wounds. Atleast they are different enough to remain in memory, if only for a brief while.
Trivium love
Metallica to the point of worship. The media has latched on to them to the point of nauseum. For a disc so devoid of inspiration and originality, and for radio to be be so taken with it just shows what an empty, bleak void was left when
Metallica decided to change their sound. There are obviously ALOT of people out there so hungry for the band that they are willing to latch onto a poor man's copy and snap it up. Hook, line and sinker. Despite the fact that the disc is riddled with issues on its own, nevermind the shameless copying of other outfits.
"The Crusade" is not a good CD. Not when compared to
Metal Church or Pantera or any of their contemporaries they are so desperately trying to imitate. Its messy, its heavy but with all that anger energy, still manages to be boring. Its too far spread with the same repeating themes musically to make an impression and the lyrics just plain suck. The grotesque fascination with mainstream media sensational murders is also another strike against them. Such thought provoking material that is all too real is treated here with a shameful carelessness used more for shock value than anything else. Especially the way they decided to present it.
However...and this is a big however...if you are hell bent on getting in on the trend that is
Trivium, then this review is not going to stop you. If a weak "Master of Puppets" is what you need in your life to achieve heavy metal happiness, then here you go.
"The Crusade" fills that niche, if poorly.
Written by
Alanna Sunday, February 4, 2007
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