Of all of the bands knocking about in Metal these days, Trivium are perhaps the one band with the most to live up to; their 2005 breakthrough album, “Ascendancy”, helped to forge the sound of Metalcore and would become a template for many bands to follow. Since then, the band have gone through a number of phases, never really looking back, always pressing forward into new territory. However, each release along the way has been held up against that initial success and, more often than not, has been panned as the band being unable to follow up on their initial promise.

As with previous albums, this release takes another step into the unknown, and be warned Metal fans, there are (almost) no harsh vocals. Before you all go running though, let me make this clear – this is not a Bring Me the Horizon-style “Let’s Produce a Pop Album!”. This is still Trivium. However, where previous heavier releases have drawn on the band’s Death Metal influences, this album has been more inspired by the Classical Metal side of their roots – in particular, lead guitarist Corey Beaulieu has spoken about the influence of Iron Maiden on the album. Nowhere is this influence more evident than in Matt Heafy’s new vocals. Whilst he still may not be the best clean vocalist in Metal, the work that he has put in over the last year has seen vocal range improve leaps and bounds. This new range allows him to belt out the soaring choruses on singles “Until the World Goes Cold” and title track “Silence in the Snow”.

With songs being constructed to fit around the new centrepiece, the instrumental parts take a back seat; in particular, the absence of the Heafy-Beaulieu duelling guitars is noticeable. However, let us not jump to conclusions and call them an old band going soft Metallica-style – give them a chance, and you may find that you like what Trivium are maturing into.

Kieran Suchak