Last week, the metal band Trivium released their 10th studio album, In the Court of the Dragon. It was definitely surprising that we got an album so soon, especially with their last record What the Dead Men Say only having been released a year prior. But that doesn’t at all mean this album sounds rushed, or underdeveloped. If anything, ITCOTD might be one of the Trivium’s greatest newer albums. We’ve talked about one of the singles before, but now I’ll be giving you my track-by-track review of the whole album.
We start off with the song X, an intro track that has a very dark, cinematic sound that reminds me of the beginning of Silence in the Snow, except now with a much more ominous presence and buildup, topped off with the sounds of a roaring dragon. The choir and orchestral drums add to that powerful tone, and serve as a great lead-in to the first full song of the album.
The title track, In the Court of the Dragon, wastes no time hitting us with the modern Trivium sound we’ve become familiar with. Once again, we see some incredible thrash guitarwork, fast-paced, complex drums and screaming vocals. The song starts with this thrashy tone, and has a growing melodic voice, that becomes super prominent with the open chorus. Again, it’s much like past Trivium music, but provides as a really strong start for this record.
Like A Sword Over Damocles is, first of all, enough confirmation that the band has returned to giving their songs ridiculously long names, but more importantly, seems to be pulling from their previous albums In Waves and Ascendancy. The song is chocked full of dark melodies and heavy riffs, and the vocals take a sort of punk-style pacing, especially in the verse. That paired with the occasional chanting in the backing vocals, and the long guitar solos, makes this song very aggressive in tone.
Feast of Fire was a pre-released single that proved to simultaneously be very catchy and heavy. The chorus has some fun rhythms going on, and has a nice duality with the heavy main riff and darker verses. This song isn’t as flashy with the guitar as others off this album, but really does put the bass guitar in the spotlight with some of the more complex melodies, showing us that Paolo Gregoletto, the bassist, is doing way more than just backing up those guitars.
A Crisis Of Revelation basically smashes Ascendancy and the album Shogun together, to bring forth a song that is very faithful to Trivium’s roots. The guitars go into a complete frenzy during the solo section, and the guitars are backed with a nice phaser pedal, quite unlike the technical effects we’ve seen in past albums. This song is another to go back and forth between clean melodies and aggressive riffs and rough vocals, and is very high in energy.
The Shadow Of The Abattoir has a very different feel, starting out with a beautiful, melancholy acoustic opening that opens up into a slow but booming, powerful chorus. As the song progress, it continues to build, and returns to being a total thrash frenzy during the solo section. This song is one of three to hit the seven-minute length, and it successfully packs emotion and energy consistently the whole way through.
No Way Back Just Through is short but sweet, starting off with a very heavy but catchy groove, with endless brutal energy. The chorus keeps a lot of that power, with a very fast pace and more epic sounding melody. The song, while definitely maintaining the same thrashy elements, is a little more on the pop rock side, serving as catchy and fun, while still having some extreme dark undertones.
Fall Into Your Hands is undoubtedly my personal favorite song off this album. Starting off with a powerful drum solo, the song is an absolute atom bomb of fast paced riffs, crazy drums, strong chorus melodies and some amazing solo guitarwork. One thing that really surprised me with this one in particular was the inclusion of orchestral elements. This isn’t the only song off the album to try this, but this one certainly does it the best in my opinion. There is even an emotion-invoking orchestral ending that really proves the band is trying all sorts of new things. I really hope we see more of this in future albums.
From Dawn To Decadence has a very tame beginning, but the façade of a calmer song fades as soon as the vocals come in, and the drums take it up about ten notches. The style is very much like the album The Sin And The Sentence, with a catchy, rhythmic chorus following the aggressive verse.
The album closes with The Phalanx, an epic three-part finale with master-level guitars and drums, and some of the best writing to be seen on this album. This is no doubt an award-worthy song, again reminiscent of Shogun, and another track that makes excellent use of the orchestral instruments. The song is somewhat repetitive, but that repetition almost amplifies the rise and fall of the whole song. Overall, it proves to be a powerful ending for an amazing album.
Overall, I think this is a new favorite of mine. There was no low point to this album, and Trivium is just becoming more and more impressive with every song they make. I love all of the new things that happened, mainly the use of the violins, and I’m happy they aren’t trying to only maintain a certain style. This album is, in my opinion, a turning point for the band, and I cannot wait for what this band has in store next. So I hope you enjoyed this review, and I’ll see you all soon!
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