Ember to Inferno

by

Trivium

Edit

OK, I admit, I bought Ascendancy first, and after falling in love with it, I had to get Ember to Inferno. At first, I thought it was good, but not great. After many listens, I can add this to the list of my fave metal albums of all time. The on difference between this and Ascendancy is that this has more of a metalcore feel to it, while still maintaining the thrash elements and melodic sensibility that are the trademark of Trivium. Matt Heafy's voice sounds a little different, with his growl being less powerful and his clean voice not as polished. He really sounds like Hetfield during the clean passages though. I'll give a quick track by track rundown:

1. Inception the Bleeding Skies- 8/10 an instrumental, sets you up well for the rest of the album

2. Pillars of Serpents - 9/10 does not have the trademark Trivium sound, but a VERY heavy song. Brutal riffing and mostly growled vox

3. If I Could Collapse the Masses - 10/10 - classic metalcore sound with Gothenburg riffing, love this track

4. Fugue (A Revelation) 9.5/10 - this song grows on you, great melodic parts in it, disjointed sounding verses

5. Requiem - 10/10 - the catchiest song on the album, you will love it first time through, beauitiful guitar sound

6. Ember to Inferno - 9/10 - great tune, similar riffing to fugue, great chorus

7. Ashes - 9/10 - second instrumental, very creepy feel to it, very ominous

8. To Burn the Eye - 9.5/10 - what an incredible piece of sonwriting, this one clocks in at 7 minutes!!!! keep in mind, heafy was 16 years old when he wrote this!!!!

9. Falling to Grey - 10/10 - wow, just awesome, memorable chorus, memorable riffs

10. My Hatred - 11/10 - best song, opening sounds like Creeping Death, leads to thrashy sounding riff, incredible vocals, such emotion behind it

11. When All Light Dies - 9/10 - good closing song, I like how it ends

12. A View of Burning Empires - 8/10 - final instrumental, approximates the final riff on prior song

Overall, you can feel that this is a bit of a theme album, relating to the destruction of man, and a cataclysmic event destroying our world. They lyrics are poetic, and the whole album has an epic, dark feel to it. A must have for fans of Unearth and All That Remains, but far superior to work either of them has done. BUY THIS ALBUM!!!!!

I saw these guys live opening for machine head... the band that played before trivium was so horrible that anything even remotely metal was a welcome change, and when they first fired up, I was a little skeptical but a funny thing happened... I started to nod my head, and then later a powerful melody came at me, and then a blastbeat, and a breakdown, and an excellent clean vocal hook... I was won over by the end of the set... so I picked this up at the show.

These kids, play melodic metal in the vien of at the gates and in flames, and there is even a slight viking metal influence on the melodies in the clean vocals (think emperor mixed with nothingface, as strange as that sounds it works) Trivium arent winning any badges right now for innovation, but youll be hard pressed to find alot of bands that do this style with more conviction than trivium... in the US at least, there is a youthful energy on here that is very refreshing. One thing you really have to admire is the musicianship, especially considering that main composer vocalist matt heafy was 17 when this album was made (he handles all the guitar)

One of my gripes with this album is that there are alot of mediocre moments... and a few songs that probably shouldnt have been on there, but for every ok song there are 2-3 good ones... when these guys are firing on all cylinders its a truly beautiful thing. Alot of the songs have a very epic, and hopeful feel to them that makes this album at times very empowering, and there are some absolutely beautiful melodies that I havent exactly heard anywhere else, although in a song there may also be a kind of bland part right before a really moving and brilliant one...

Sometimes, the songs stretch on a little bit too long, there were times when I wish that they had been a verse or two shorter... even though there are alot of choruses, they manage to mix it up alot with solos and breakdowns etc, but this seems to have been remedied on some of the newer material theyre working on... The singer has a really good voice, and I could defenitely see that being a secret weapon against bands like shadows fall who have crappy clean vocals... and believe me, at the rate these kids are going, they'll play cirlces around everyone in no time, they defenitely gave chimaira and machinehead a run for their money.

look, even though I gave this three stars, I listen to it quite a bit, and actually enjoy it alot. there is a blatant slayer rip off song, and a few songs that dont have as much of an impact as others, but for what it is this is a very solid debut... it made me raise the horns more than a few times... just have patience, because really, there are some damn fine riffs on here and I bet this band could be a force to be reckoned with if they could just find their own sound a little bit, and have a better nack for paying attention to details... and maybe if they kicked the breakdowns up a notch in technicality.

Great musicianship, excellent melodies... the production isnt bad ( on the extended edition there are two newer songs that show what they are more capable of, and has cleaner production ) it tends to drag on a bit and even though you know alot of bands have done this style before, this album is very enjoyable... if not a little repeatetive.

This is still 10 times the record " soundtrack to your escape" will ever be. Catch these guys live, because theyre playing new songs that absolutely destroy, and they know how to bring the thrash.