Trivium's What The Dead Men Say: a multi-layered merging of melody and mania

Trivium provide fury and finesse in one package on ninth album What The Dead Men Say

By Malcolm Dome
( Classic Rock )
published
Trivium - What The Dead Men Say
(Image: © Roadrunner)

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Trivium were always a cut above the metal norm. They’ve consistently shown the ability to merge melody and mania, and they’ve never done it better than on What The Dead Men Say. 

Their ninth studio album is a classy mix of Megadeth and Stone Sour, combining the complex harmonics of the former with the intensity and tunefulness of the latter. You can hear this best on Catastrophist, Bleed Into Me and The Defiant. 

All are multi-layered, offering moments of both beautiful intimacy and blazing rage. For most bands, attempting this juxtaposition would be disastrous, but here it sounds sublime, seamless.

Much of this is due to the way Matt Heafy can vary his vocals from sensitive to ferocious, plus the way he and Corey Beaulieu entwine their guitar parts, so reminiscent of prime Helloween. Trivium have reached a new level of excellence.

Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.