Review 1 of 6

Jamo888 writes:

2of 5 Stars

"Nothing mars a good metal album like so-called harsh vocals..."

This quote only goes to show how out of touch Rolling Stone is with the heavy metal underground. Ask any group of metal fans if "harsh vocals" take away from the music and 9 out of 10 will tell you no. Do you know why? Because heavy metal isn't about the singing or screaming or what have you. It's about the music or, more specifically, the riff. A great heavy riff will turn a group of unknowns into underground stars. An album full of them will turn them into legends.

Metal fans have always been a curious lot: Change with the times and you're labelled sell-out, stick with your sound and you become stagnant and irrelevant. It takes a lot of talent to balance on such a tight rope.

Unfortunately, Trivium doesn't have that talent. They deserve respect for not making "Ascendancy Part II," and while they do write a few good songs for "The Crusade," they never quite reach the level they so arrogantly claim to have achieved.

The problem with this album isn't the screaming or lack thereof, it's that Matt Heafy's clean singing style lacks the dynamic punch and power his idol James Hetfield carries. However, that is just one of the problems plaguing "The Crusade," but since I don't have enough characters to explain it on RollingStone.com, I'll skim through them. The lyrics sound like the Hulk reading excerpts from an 11-year-old girl's diary, kind of like "TRIVIUM MAD!" "TRIVIUM SMASH!" "RACISM WRONG!" "BREAK EVERY BONE IN YOUR FACE IF YOU MESS WITH MY LIFE!". Lame. The riffs are tired and forced, especially in Trivium's career nadir, "Entrance of the Conflagration" (which was, ironically, released as the first single). The energy has been sapped from their sound as well, and they sound bored with these songs. Their creativity, while it isn't completely gone, has been diminished in favor of a Metallica-by-numbers approach.

Rolling Stone has no idea what a good metal album is, and their review only proves it.

May 19, 2008 20:32:29

Review 2 of 6

RespectableHonkee writes:

Not Rated

Heavy metal has been reduced to a boring, homogenized version of it's former self. Most of metal's modern practitioners are low standard assembly-line nobodies. You can't tell one band from another, and most of them are unconsiously ripping off the older bands they're trying to distance themselves from. Heavy metal is old, people, so everybody new is going to sound like somebody old whether you like it or not. On 'The Crusade', Trivium embraces their influences, and thus have changed themselves into an anamoly in today's metal landscape; a band that is immediately recognizable, descernable from the pack of amateurish headbangers they quickly left for dead when vocalist Matt Heafy began doing something strange. The man actually sings... go figure. He's no Sinatra, but the style of inaudible growling employed by modern metal 'vocalists' has had the opposite effect of what it was intended for... it's made the music soft. Heafy underscores, and never overshadows, the power of his bandmates' playing by delivering a fluid, workmanlike vocal style that inspires all extremes from rage to calmness, heat to ice and insanity to cerebralness. The cartoonish 'growlers' have no such range of emotion, thus they can never be considered heavy, only heavy-handed.

Oct 30, 2007 18:49:50

Review 3 of 6

smi23le writes:

5of 5 Stars

The Metallica comparison seems so wrong to me.

If you have to compare this amazing band to a group from the 80's, Trivium is much more akin to Megadeth. Both have amazing, politically aware lyrics. Both have two wonderful lead guitar players.

I haven't stopped listening to The Crusade in months. It's the best new album I've heard (other than maybe Shadows Fall's War Within) in 15 years.

Jan 5, 2007 15:59:39

Review 4 of 6

groomsy writes:

3of 5 Stars

"The Crusade" is a good solid album IF you like old school metal. While I can sit and listen to a select few songs off of the album, I can't stand too much of it for long period's of time. I am a very big fan of the "ascendancy style" trivium. while the following statements may contredict each other, it is just how i feel: "The Crusade" is a decent album, but i also see it as the #1 letdown in metal of the year. I expected so much more out of Trivium. BRING BACK THE SCREAM HEAFY!

Oct 19, 2006 09:19:59

Review 5 of 6

harasyn writes:

1of 5 Stars

Ok pretty much this album is a Metalica RIP OFF. I am so dissapointed in Trivium. One question i have is why did they go oldschool? But if you like Metalica you'll like this cd.

Oct 10, 2006 14:12:10

Review 6 of 6

Dodsjel writes:

2of 5 Stars

Hes got a good voice... but hes trying to hard... first 3 tracks sound all the same... nothing special about them! by track 3 it felt like the album had been going on hours! boring if you ask me... anthem a good track... carried on listening to the album and out of the amount of songs there are only around 3 songs have got a special something, doesnt even come close to the last album! they said in an interview! "our new album will blow you away" it did! in the most worst possible way! were one of my favourite "NEW" bands now they just fading in with the rest of the modern day music! SHIT!

Oct 10, 2006 01:40:34