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.

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Issues: An Album a Day

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

    Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if Justin Timberlake, DJ Lethal and Emmure had a side project together? If so then Issues is your band. Issues is a Nu Metalcore band that incorporate an array of weird influences that include Pop, R&B, Rap, Metalcore, Djent and Nu Metal. While all of these genres should not, under any circumstances work together, they surprisingly do. Certain tracks go back and forth between heavier, harsh vocal driven bits and poppier sections while others have the boy band vocals and harsh vocals laid over top of a metal band with scratching and keyboard.

    At the heart of the mixture of Pop and Metal are co-lead singers Tyler Carter and Michael Bohn. Issues is actually the third band that both Carter and Bohn have sang with, having previously worked as a duo in bands A Path Less Traveled and Woe, Is Me. Their chemistry shows throughout the album as they are able to make the transitions between and layering of Carter’s soft clean vocals and Bohn’s primal snarling work well.

    Life Of A Nine is the track that features the band going through all of the genres they mix at a fairly rapid pace. The song starts off mid-breakdown then picks up tempo as Carter raps the pre chorus and then the chorus goes full pop, complete with shimmering synths around Carter’s clean vocals. One of the things I do have to give these guys is for all of the potential to be a novelty act they take their music seriously, having solid guitar work and generally well written lyrics. Even the bassist and drummer seem to hold their own for most of the album.

    If Life Of A Nine has the most noticeable shifts of genre mid song then The Langdon House might be the most cohesive combination. This track does feel more like a standard Nu Metal track than anything else on the album, but it also mixes in the heavier Djent elements and pop vocals. This track also features some of the best rapping from Carter and even some harsh vocals towards the end of his verse. I give their drummer Josh Manuel a lot of credit here as he manages to pull off some fills in between the vocals on the softer sections without it sounding forced.

    The rest of the album is much the same, seeing how many ways they can mix Rap, Metal and Pop over the course of the album. Late is more of a commercial Rock song throughout and the closing track Disappear features an acapella Gospel choir at the end, but other than that the rest is pretty similar. If you’re wondering where the idea of mixing Top 40 and Metal came from, apparently it was inspired by Nu Metal. Members of the band have said that they want to do with R&B and Top 40 what Nu Metal did with Rap music. So there you go, it’s Linkin Park’s fault again.

    Overall this album is actually really good, there really isn’t a track on this album that I dislike. Despite the novelty of blending Pop and Metal this album is cohesive, certainly more cohesive than it has any right to be. A few of the transitions are jarring, such as Stingray Affliction’s bridge, but even those shifts don’t feel any more out of place than an ambient part of a Periphery song. I found myself enjoying this album way more than I ever thought I would and I’m curious to go listen to their second album Headspace now.

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Legends Sleeping With Sirens: An Album a Day

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

Add another one to the list of decent rock bands selling out and turning pop sounding. Legends by Sleeping With Sirens is a legitimate sellout as it was done for the USA olympic team. The biggest issue is that rather than having a more commercial version of their usual style they completely disregarded any and all rock and metal influence to make a generic as all hell pop single that doesn't even sound like the same band.

I'm not going to act like Sleeping With Sirens were all that great before this track, but at least they had a style and identity. Similarly to the band Issues they mixed pop elements in with a hard rock and metalcore sound. Again, this combination was never one I particularly liked but at least they had a legitimate and interesting sound. One of the fee tracks I like from them is called We Like It Loud and features the irony filled lyrics “sell us the world but we ain't selling out”.

As a power pop track this one isn’t too bad, especially when compared to most of what get’s played on the radio these days. The synths are kind of cool and the real drums are a nice touch to keep it from being exactly like everything else on pop radio. Aside from the generic lyrics, the biggest problem on this track are the vocals. Even if you’re not a fan of this band, you have to admit Kellin Quinn has a pretty incredible voice; on this track his voice is so dull and lifeless I wasn’t even sure it was him at first.

Now, this isn't the first commercial pop sounding track they've done, pop influence has always been part of their sound. Given that they walk between pop and metal it's entirely possible this isn't their new sound but simply a one off track. But even compared to their other softer tracks this one is terrible, being devoid of any of the hallmarks of their sound. A track like Heroine works so much better for a poppier/ radio friendly song because it mixes the rock elements in.

While I've never been a fan of these guys I'll admit that they have a lot of potential and I'd hate to see them continue in the direction of a track like Legends. I've actually found a few songs from their last album Madness that I enjoy. I think a sound that is somewhere between Avenged Sevenfold, Bring Me The Horizon and radio rock is a much better fit for these guys than sellout power pop.

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