ARTiST : Trivium
ALBUM : The Crusade
LABEL : Roadrunner Records
GENRE : Metal
RELEASE : 2006-09-19
STREET : 2006-10-10
ENCODER : LAME 3.90.3
QUALiTY : 240kbps avg / 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo
SiZE : 99.03 MB
PLAYTiME : 00:57:25
+ TRACK LiSTiNG +
-----------------
[#] [Track Name] [Time]
1. Ignition 3:54
2. Detonation 4:28
3. Entrance Of The Conflagration 4:35
4. Anthem (We Are The Fire) 4:03
5. Unrepentant 4:51
6. And Sadness Will Sear 3:34
7. Becoming The Dragon 4:43
8. To The Rats 3:42
9. This World Can't Tear Us Apart 3:30
10. Tread The Floods 3:33
11. Contempt Breeds Contamination 4:28
12. The Rising 3:45
13. The Crusade 8:19
57:25
+ RELEASE iNFORMATiON +
-----------------------
Talent and charisma are key ingredients for any professional musician, but
without dedication and perseverance, many bands quickly fade to black. Then
there are those like Orlando, Florida band Trivium, who are so determined, their
behavior borders on insanity.
The day before Hurricane Charlie decimated Florida, Trivium were playing the
House of Blues in Atlanta. While they knew they were up against their own
Perfect Storm, they decided not cancel the next night's show in their hometown.
“We drove a van with a trailer right through the eye of the hurricane,” 18 year
old singer and guitarist Matt Heafy says. “[Drummer] Travis [Smith] drove the
whole way and he was like Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible' or something. He
just kept going and we made it for the show.” Showing his dedication Heafy says,
“we all live for this band. We wake up, practice a little bit on our own and
then go to band practice and play for hours and hours. That's all we do, and all
we want to do for the rest of our lives.”
The same type of dedication and youthful exuberance goes into the band's music.
Ascendancy, the group's second album, their first on Roadrunner Records, is
filled with carefully crafted songs that surge with energy, passion and
originality. Like their solid 2003 debut Ember To Inferno, Ascendancy is rooted
in '80s and '90s thrash, recalling the glory days of Metallica, Slayer, Pantera
and Testament. But, the new disc doesn't stop there, incorporating aspects of
melodic death metal and even prog-rock. Twin guitar harmonies and
point/counterpoint dynamics abound, twisting around vocals that alternate from
melodic and pained to caustic and full of rage. “We had so much more to work
with this time,” says Heafy of the Jason Suecof-produced disc. “I had great
guitar sounds, Travis is playing like a machine and the vocals are so much more
multi-dimensional.”
While the first album, lyrically, addressed romantic disillusionment and child
abuse, this time the songs confront spousal abuse, suicide, depression, tyranny
and freedom of speech. However, even at his most poignant, Heafy prefers
expressing gut emotion to preaching. “I've found that when you have a negative
aspect in your life, you can find so much negativity in other people's lives
around you, and in the world. For me, it's good to write about the negativity to
get some of it out of my system.”
Trivium formed in 2000 after the band's original singer saw Heafy perform the
Offspring's “Self Esteem” with a drummer at his high school talent show. The
band members chose the name Trivium, which is Latin for the intersection between
the three schools of learning: grammar, rhetoric and logic, because they liked
the way it implied an open-mindedness to different styles, and summed up their
musical aesthetic. After a couple of gigs at parties, the original singer quit
the band and Heafy took the wheel. For the next two years, the band honed its
sound, and in 2002 Heafy won the Best Metal Guitarist Award at the Orlando Metal
Awards. Trivium headed into the studio in the beginning of 2003 to record their
first high-quality demo disc. From this, German label Lifeforce signed Trivium
and sent the band into the studio to record Ember To Inferno.
After going through various lineups, the band finally found guitarist Corey
Beaulieu, who compliments Heafy's precision playing with solid riffs that help
anchor the songs. Landing a bassist was even more difficult. Numerous players
came and went before Paolo Gregoletto, who has jammed with Iron Maiden drummer
Nicko McBrain, was brought in just in time for the tour with Machine Head.
Feeling so strongly about the group, their music and their dedication to their
craft, Paolo left another group to be a part of Trivium.
By July 2004, Trivium had 80 percent of the material for Ascendancy written and
fine-tuned. Then in September, the band headed into Audiohammer and Morrisound
Studios with Suecof, where they recorded the songs. As much as Trivium enjoyed
their studio experience, they're happiest on the road. In the past year they've
embarked on tours with Machine Head and Iced Earth as well as played dates with
Killswitch Engage, Fear Factory and others, and won over new fans with every
show. “What's cool about a tour is every night's a party,” Heafy says. “It's not
always because everyone's drinking, but people are getting along well and
hanging out. The energy from the crowds is amazing.”
With their second album finished and on the shelf, Trivium look forward to
spending most of the year on the road – which doesn't mean they're not
constantly working on new material. While they're currently working their way up
the thrash metal totem pole, they're not planning to settle for reaching any
level but the summit of the mountain.
