Trivium- In the Court of The Dragon (2021)
Review by Scott Miller
Trivium is a band that has been with me for quite a few years now, my first time seeing them being in 2007 on the Mayhem Festival lineup. At that time in my life, I was a fresh faced kid getting into metal in middle school, just discovering bands like Disturbed or Slipknot. The first album I had heard from them was the album that had been released just the year before, Shogun. Now, six studio albums later, with this release- and me at age 27- following their career from then to now has been, if nothing else, an absolute treat.
For those of you who may not know the band, Trivium is an Orlando, FL-based four-piece metal band. Their sound has ranged from thrash metal to metalcore to even progressive metal at times. With their fair share of blast beats, catchy riffs, and chunky breakdowns, this band has something for absolutely every fan of any kind of heavy music. Couple that with the immense vocal chops and energy of frontman Matt Heafy as well, and you have the formula for an all-encompassing and amazingly fun metal band.
In the Court of The Dragon opens up with the atmospheric track "X", which sets the scene for the titular track that comes directly after. Trivium had released In the Court of The Dragon as a single before the album's release, and it had me hooked from the very start. Matt Heafy belts out “In the Court of The Dragon, you will know your worth!” with the backing guitars doing these really cool arpeggios, steady and absolutely heavy drum fills and a crunchy bassline, plus an absolutely stellar breakdown midway through the song, it easily secures my spot for the best track in the record. Unfortunately, though, I can say after the sixth track on the record, the rest doesn’t really evoke much from me.
The other single from this album, for instance, "Feast of Fire", falls somewhat flat for me. Not to say that the construction of the music itself is bad- far from it, but while the arrangement and production are absolutely solid, the emotion that could be evoked just is somewhat absent, or perhaps just repetitive.
We then get to the sixth track on the record, Shadow of the Abattoir, which for me, was something not only somewhat unexpected but wildly refreshing. This track gives off the energy that I would get from a symphonic metal band perhaps, especially in the chorus where Matt hits some gnarly high notes. Its pacing is somewhat slower at points, but it blends so nicely into the chorus and picks up again midway through with a short and sweet breakdown and then into a thrashy style solo.
Beyond what was on the record though, I had the opportunity to see Trivium play some of the new material on their tour with Megadeth earlier in the month. Trivium has always been a gem for me to see live not only because of their energy on stage, but their ability to sound almost note for note live, as they do on recording. If you ever get a chance to see Trivium live, dear reader, I highly recommend it.
The biggest gripes that I have with this record are mostly that it is just very similar to their previous releases. And while I don’t inherently have any issue with that, since I think if a formula works, then keep doing what works, it didn’t strike me as anything wildly different or groundbreaking for them as a band.
Overall this release, whilst not their longest, or in my opinion their best, is a solid release nonetheless. If I were ordering their studio records on a list, this would probably be in the high-midpoint section of that list for me. And as such, I’ll be giving this record a solid 6.5/10
In the Court of the Dragon was released on 10/8/21 through Roadrunner Records
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