Trivium

In The Court Of The Dragon

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Genre: Metalcore.
Released: 08/10/2021
Via Roadrunner Records

Album Review: Trivium – In The Court Of The Dragon

Trivium seem to not want to stop when it comes to recording new music, and ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’ marks their second full-length album in the space of a year. The metalcore band from Orlando Florida certainly didn’t let their time off touring go to waste and fans seem just as excited if not more for this new music. With the success of Trivium on the last couple of releases, fans certainly have their expectations high for this one so without any further delay, here are my thoughts on ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’.

Atmospheric as ever, Trivium opens the album with a real mood setter in ‘X’ – which in truth is just a drawn-out opening for ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’. This track hit’s hard right off the bat! The emphatic single has already become a fan favourite and it’s clear to see why. It boasts the bands signature duel guitar harmonics blended well with a much more aggressive sound of Matt Heafy. A monstrous way to open an album which is followed by an in-your-face number titled ‘Like A Sword Over Damocles’. Swapping out the melodic nature of the previous track in favour of a more impactful instrumental works well at highlighting the band’s diversity. I’d highly recommend this track to anyone who is a fan of the bands earlier work.

Following on from that is ‘Feast Of Fire’, a powerful track that adopts the bands more modern mantra of a cleaner vocal style. This song certainly feels like it sums up what Trivium has become since releasing ‘Silence In The Snow’. This is a great way of hearing the bands progression and seeing their growth. Bullet-like drumming opens up ‘A Crisis Of Revelation’ and I am here for it. This song has an infectious chorus that will get stuck in your head for days and overall, the track is just a solid piece of music. Everything from the harmonics to the execution of the drumming, This song just feels larger than life and I had such a blast every time it came on.

Up next is the first song I just couldn’t get behind. ‘The Shadow Of The Abattoir’ just didn’t quite hit the way it should for me and that’s a real shame. The contrasting styles scattered throughout the track make for an interesting listening experience that I believe will split fans on to whether they can get behind this one or not. For me, there wasn’t enough substance within the track and despite being over 7 minutes long, I came out of it with very little. Thankfully, ‘No Way Back Just Through’ pulled me back in a bit. This is a decent track that gets the job done and flows nicely. Instrumentally, I found this song to be extremely strong however the lyrics just seemed a little generic and tame for my liking, however, this is quickly rectified by ‘Fall Into Your Hands’. Everything about this track is just pure bliss. From the drum filled intro to the aggression in Matt’s screams, I could not get enough of this track which is why I have to say this was the best track on the record for me. I got real ‘Ascendancy’ era feels from this track at times and that is OK with me.

Approaching the end of the album and ‘From Dawn To Decadence’ brings the heat late on. This track is a heavy beast that plans on taking no prisoners. Once again, the blend of heavy and soft is executed perfectly to allow this song to hit so hard. It’s an amazing build-up so the question is, does the album have a strong finish… Kinda. ‘The Phalanx’ is the final track of the album and it’s just ok. It’s by no means a bad song however I would have to state that it is one of the weakest tracks on the whole album. The lack of real development in the lengthy track makes it feel like it drags at times. What a shame.

Overall, this album isn’t the bands best work however it still adds a lot to their arsenal. Trivium have struck gold on their last few releases which makes this album slightly lacklustre offering a feel that is much more disappointing. If you a fan of the band I’d still recommend giving the album a go for yourself, however it’s a miss for me.