Trivium burst upon the scene in 2003 with Ember To Inferno, and steadily built their fan base over the years with a string of successful albums. Their past few albums have done well on the charts, and they’ve had rock radio airplay with tracks like “Until The World Goes Cold” and “The Heart From Your Hate.”
For their ninth studio album What The Dead Men Say, they once again worked with producer Josh Wilbur (Lamb Of God, All That Remains). In an era where bands take months and some even years to record an album, Trivium tracked this one in just over two weeks.
As for the sound of the album, frontman Matt Heafy says, “What The Dead Men Say is everything we do on one record. It will be straightforward at times, but it’s also super heavy and technical. It feels dense, but it’s incredibly short. We’re flexing our creative wings in a different way on every single song. To pour all of those facets into one record and make it work embodies what we are.”
After the opening instrumental “IX,” things kick in with the title track. It balances blastbeats and galloping riffs with melodic singing from Heafy along with harsh vocals. “Catastrophist” was picked to be a single for a reason. Even though it exceeds six minutes, it has a singalong chorus and memorable melodies, along with an intense middle section.
What The Dead Men Say expertly balances extremity and melody throughout. Some tracks are on the more mainstream end of the scale, like “Bleed Into Me” and “Scattering The Ashes” while songs such as “Sickness Unto You” and “Bending The Arc To Fear” lean toward the heavier side, with larger doses of harsh vocals.
2017’s The Sin And The Sentence found the band hitting on all cylinders. With the same lineup, same producer and a batch of quality new songs, they’ve maintained that momentum on What The Dead Men Say.
(released April 24, 2020 on Roadrunner Records)
