Metal Reviews

Somebody should tell The Absence that they would be the "trivium" of the situation when compared to bands like Suffocation. They should understand that there are tr00er bands than them.

Am I the only one who finds this funny?

Not at all. But not in a good way...

I've never even heard of the Abscence

Well the soloing's a damn sight better than Slayer , that's for sure.

If you like melodeath listen to From Your Grave and Riders of the Plague. Both are solid albums and worth checking out if you're a genre fan.

The thing with the Absence is if your a fan of the genre you've heard it from another band and it was better then. The Absence does melodeath well and they're great musicians, but they're missing some personal touch in their sound. When you hear Dark Tranquillity, Darkane, In Flames or Hypocrisy for example, you know right off it's them because of the signature sound but with the Absence it could be anyone's guess.

haha this is so lame

Come to think of it, couldn't the time The Absence is using to organize this whole scheme be better utilized to practice and, well, get better? And by attracting attention this way, doesn't that make them just as desperate for media exposure as they think Trivium are? The more I think about this whole thing, the more flaws and contradictions I see in it...

As far as I'm concerned, both bands need to fade away.

Having listened to the shit out of those mentioned bands during my years as a metal fan bands like The Absence are something nice to listen to so I don't have to spin Whoracle for the bazillionth time.

I mean I see what you're saying but I'm a huge melodeath fan, definitely my favorite genre of metal so you know when someone comes along that plays the style very well, I can't complain myself. :: shrug ::

Yeah, they'll release an album that'll fully shed all metalcore connections and be heralded as one of the best heavy metal releases that year.

And The Absence will continue to be aptly named.

Unless you're being sarcastic many metal mags/review sites I've been to bashed The Crusade for being " Pretentious " And for trying to put old thrash into the mix and drop the metalcore. Not that it's a bad choice but I guess many thought it was like some sort of move they're not capable of? I dunno. It worked for me.

I enjoyed The Crusade myself because I like old thrash ( didn't love it ) and I felt it was nice to have a newer band kinda playing the style but I'm sure if they just go full heavy metal that they'll be trashed on again.

As for the Absence, I doubt they're going anywhere. :: shrug :: I say that meaning they'll be around for a bit.

Pretentious? Pffft! You have to remember, people follow trends. You guys don't want to admit it, but it's true. You just have to look at celebrity news to see it plain as day. The world LOVED when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were dating. Good ol' Bennifer. They were everywhere! But what happened? People started to get sick of seeing them everywhere and reading about them everywhere. The same people that were gobbling it all up before.

So they switched gears and started trashing them. And the sheep followed. Take Gigli for instance. Worst movie ever made? Fuck that! That movie wasn't great, but it was hardly bad, let alone the worst fucking movie ever made. But hey, it was just another way for people to tear Affleck and Lopez down. This sort of thing happens all the time, and it happens in music just as much.

Just because some magazine said an album was pretentious means nothing. These people clearly have no grasp on what the word means. Maybe fans gave it too much praise within the pantheon of metal bands past, but those are fans being pretentious, not the band. Magazines these days love to talk shit, just like we see on message boards. It's become part of our culture.

So why give a horse's ass what a magazine writes?

Trivium can't win no matter what they do. Pre-Crusade, they were chastised for being representatives of metalcore; post-Crusade, they were accused of riding on the tailcoats of Metallica. It does make me interested to see what they'll attempt to do next...

I first heard Trivium just as they were getting big. I though they were an average 'core band that had somehow gotten big through clever marketing (ie plastering them absolutely everywhere) and an admittedly decent bit of guitar playing. However, they were still distinctly average.

Then comes Crusade. Heafy tells the world in interviews etc that he loves old school metal, so what does he do? Tries to play it. Just as metalcore's starting to wane, fancy that. And he's damn dreadful at it. The songs are dull, the vocals beyond awful. People rightfully said 'this is crap' and left them to the newbs, who hadn't found the decent 'core bands out there.

Heafy did ok on the Roadrunner All Stars thing, and I'm curious to hear this Black Metal project he keeps dangling, but ultimately, overrated twit.

And Gigli was a fucking dreadful fucking late-term abortion of a movie. Affleck as a meathead who turns a lesbian straight through his hatred of tards? And Al Pacino's most wooden moment yet? It made Oceans Thirteen look like Godfather 2!

Zad, do you realize that Matt Heafy is still probably younger than most people that post here? Do I think The Crusade was a result of metalcore waning? Pffft! Metalcore is bigger than ever right now. Of course, people simply aren't calling it metalcore. They're trying to turn it into something respectable and say it's neo-metal or modern thrash. Whatever. The music hasn't changed. (I never felt most of the metalcore bands had much hardcore in the mix, anyway.)

But my point is that Trivium are a band that just were in the right place at the right time. I think Heafy was like thirteen or fourteen when Roadrunner signed them. What do you expect from kids that young? They're going to emulate things, whatever's popular basically, since kids that young generally follow what's popular (you all did it, don't lie).

I personally think The Crusade is the sign of a band finally getting a grasp on what they truly want to play. And in most normal situations, that is the album most of us would have first heard (not many groups of thirteen-year-olds get record deals). I like The Crusade. I think it's a good metal album, and I've always thought Trivium's music was excellent. Heafy's screaming sucks, though. His singing voice is good. Can't understand why so many people slag it off.

Of course, I did mention trends above. Ask yourself, why are you and others just so damn critical of Trivium?

'cause they're popular and hyped and stuff but mediocre

also two of my favourite albums were released by 17 or 18 year olds so going on about age is silly.

Meh, give it a few years and he'll be suing his dad for improper business handling or something. Power to his elbow, he's a rock star at a very young age, let's hope he doesn't turn into Lindsey Lohan.

As for the music itself, I never liked Trivium's style, despite them clearly having a knack for some decent songwriting, which is more than a lot of bands have. You know me, fussy as fuck. The likes of As I Lay Dying don't appeal, yet I have a soft spot for Chimaira, The Bled, 36 Crazyfists (well, ASCR... RITF is a bit disappointing so far) it comes down to the band, and I've been critical of Trivium from the beginning.

Seriously, mate, don't try and prove anything from me. How many other people are there on this board who love both Evanescence and Extreme Noise Terror, Hammerfall and Hate Eternal?