Trivium The Sin and The Sentence: Single of The Week

Single of The Week is posted every Tuesday (from now on)

The newest single from Trivium sees the band bridging the gap between their earlier sound and the sound seen on Silence In The Snow. While Trivium have always changed up their style between albums, but the biggest change came on their 2015 album Silence In The Snow which featured no harsh vocals at all, and overall had a more classic Metal sound. This was due to singer Matt Heafy damaging his voice and being unable to do harsh vocals at the time of recording, combined with the departure of drummer Nick Augusto and his subsequent replacement by the less skilled Mat Madiro. Due to all of these circumstances Silence In The Snow was a good album, but it was much more stripped down and straightforward compared to Trivium’s usual work.

The new single, The Sin and The Sentence bridges these two style of Trivium extremely well. For all of the hate on Vengeance Falls and Silence In The Snow by die hard fans, those two albums featured some of the most impressive clean vocals by Heafy to date. Those vocals are on full display here, with Heafy using his powerful lower voice to sing most of Sin and The Sentence. On top of this we have the return to form on harsh vocals, with Heafy screaming for emphasis just like their older albums. Along with the vocals, the music is allowed to be much more complex and interesting because of new drummer Alex Bent. Bent facilitates more interesting guitar playing by Corey Beaulieu and Heafy.

    This track quality wise is somewhere between Vengeance Falls and Shogun, having an awesome sound and great musicianship without being as high brow as Shogun can be at times. From everything I’ve read this seems to be the general direction of their upcoming 8th album, and I personally think it’s a good direction for them. While I don’t expect this to be Shogun, I think it will be one of the best albums Trivium has put out, being a good return to form after the limits that were placed around Silence In The Snow.

Single on Google Play

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Islander Power Under Control: An Album A Day

An Album A Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

  

   Islander are an interesting band; their first album, Violence and Destruction was almost entirely one of nu metal revival, complete with a guest spot by POD front man Sonny Sandoval. But after literally the entire band left except for lead singer Mikey Carvajal, Islander’s sound also evolved, incorporating punk, alternative, ska punk, hip hop and modern metal into their sound. The album that came out of this mixing of genres was Power Under Control, which for my money is head and shoulders better than their debut.

    The lineup for this album consisted of JR Bareis on guitar, Arin Illejay on drums and Ezekiel Vasquez playing bass. Bareis is the current lead singer and guitarist for KoRn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch’s solo project, Illejay was the second drummer for Avenged Sevenfold and Vasquez was the bass player for alt rockers ForeverAtLast. Given the eclectic styles and influences each of these artists brings, not to mention the clear Deftones influence on Carvajal, it’s no wonder the album contains so many genres.

    The first thing I can say about Islander is that Carvajal is one of the greatest front men in the modern rock and metal scenes. First off, this guy have like 15 different ways of singing, ranging from death growls and screaming to legitimately good rap vocals, amazing cleans and a unique style that borrows from Che without being a rip off. On top of that, Carvajal owns every crowd that he plays in front of live, combining raw charisma with singing ability and a knack for never looking lost during instrumental breaks.

    The album as a whole is something that must be experienced in one sitting, while many songs are great on their own they all work better within the context of the album. Tracks like Darkness, Bad Guy, Think It Over and Casket work great as stand alone songs, but work way better within the semi narrative of the album. While there is no definite story, the placement of each song seems to have a general flow from a sinner lost in darkness to someone who has found meaning in life.

    Islander, similarly to Twenty One Pilots have songs that are filled with vague Christian themes and spiritual elements. These themes likely stem from Carvajal’s faith, who like Tyler Joseph is not interested in making Christian Rock music but doesn’t shy away from putting those themes into his lyrics. This is one of the better bands at writing songs that can be enjoyed both from a Christian perspective or just from rock or metal fan perspective.

    Some of the best moments on this album come from songs like Devil Red, Beelzebub and Casket that haphazardly switch from alternative rock tracks into full on metal songs before switching back again. The sharp contrast between Beelzebub’s xylophone driven sound to the harsh vocals and metal guitar on the climax is amazing and perfectly sums up the feel of this album. There are also elements of reggae and ska punk on this album that are played much straighter than the Papa Roach/ POD esque reggae nu metal of their first album.

    Calling this album nu metal doesn’t really feel right, but ultimately I don’t know what else to label this as. I feel like the Deftones’ influence is definitely felt here in the way that the album has an almost progressive feel that is too big for the nu metal moniker. Power Under Control also features some really slick production that allows soft tracks like Bad Guy to feel just as powerful as Green Slime Man or Darkness.

    This album overall is a masterpiece and a testament to what a creative and talented band can do with the much maligned nu metal genre. I truly believe if this album had came out in 2001 that Islander would be one of the biggest bands of the nu metal scene. It will be interesting to see if we get a third album from these guys and what it sounds like, especially since Carvajal and the rest of the band that were on this album have amicable split.

Album on Google Play
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Demon Hunter Outlive: An Album A Day

An Album A Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

Before we get started with talking about the album, a little background. Demon Hunter are one of the only staples of the Christian Metal scene, think of them as Skillet’s bigger and burlier little brother. Over the years Demon Hunter have garnered respect within both the Christian and regular metal scenes for making quality music and not trying to hide their Christianity behind metaphors and bland lyrics.

    The two main elements of Demon Hunter’s sound for most of their careers has been face melting metal sections offset by extremely catchy and melodic interludes. After their last album Extremist had a few too many of those melodic sections, Demon Hunter have returned with a much more balanced approach on their 2017 release Outlive (stylized as Ovtlive)

    The album opens up in typical Demon Hunter fashion with a build up in the form of Trying Times. The opening track has lead singer Ryan Clark’s multi tracked vocals echoing over huge drums and guitars in a nice mix of heavy and serene. Trying Times goes straight into one of the heaviest tracks on the album Jesus Wept, a track that sounds like Slipknot mixed with some death metal elements. The lyrics here are based upon John 11:35 which is part of the story of Lazarus and states rather plainly “Jesus Wept”.

    One of my favorite things on this album is that Demon Hunter has decided to add synths straight out of Stranger Things and heavy guitars to their softer songs, giving the entire album a very rich and dynamic sound. Songs like Died In My Sleep and Raining Down have entirely clean vocals, but also feature Djent inspired guitar riffing, fast paced drums and polished old school synths.

    Not only is the production and musicianship on this album superb, but it feels like an actual record and not simply a collection of songs. Each song either fades into the next directly (such as Trying Times into Jesus Wept) or by switching tone at the end of one song to fit the beginning of the next (such as The End into One Less).

    The album closes out with Slight The Odds, a track which has a nearly one minute fade from only a string section into the full band in a very smooth transition that sees the strings stick around for the entirety of the song. The blending of symphonic and metal elements works well under Clark’s vocals before the entire track fades out to just the strings again.

    Overall Outlive is an excellent album that features some of the best production on a metal album I’ve heard in awhile. Each instrument is clearly audible and there's never a point where the heaviness of the guitars makes the note clarity suffer. Furthermore, the use of synths, strings and piano parts make the album feel huge and dynamic, with all of the loud and soft parts mixing together into a cohesive whole.

    While it’s certainly not the heaviest album in Demon Hunter’s catalogue, Outlive is one of the best, blending a myriad of different pieces into one complex, complete and mature album.

Album On DemonHunter.com (CD) (Vinyl)
Album On Google Play
Album On Itunes