In Trivium's follow up to "The Crusade", Matt Heafy brings back more "harsh" vocals than what appeared on the previous releases' mostly clean singing entry to the catalogue. I put "harsh" in quotes because this is Trivium's weakest point. Most of the time the harsh vocals seem to be forced into the music, not exactly being delivered to perfection by Heafy and trying too hard to sound heavy. Instead, it seems like his voice is a bit hoarse and underdeveloped. On a more positive note, Heafy has an amazing Hetfield-like side to his voice. When the opening track kicks in it instantly takes you back to 80's era "Master Of Puppets" sounding vocals. When the chorus to the song kicks in it's instantly memorable. Matt's voice shines. The music is becoming another strong point to Trivium. There is excellent musicianship present all throughout this release. The solos are fantastic and the drumming is nothing short of impressive. As for the songs themselves. They are more memorable than most of Trivium's previous works. The title track is a massive finisher to this epic album that is easily the band's best work to date. They get a lot of hate right now, but with a little time and development (and better song naming) Trivium has the potential to be a very successful band. I only forsee them getting better in the future. "Shogun" is an impressive release with a few downfalls that deserved this short but sweet review. 3.5/5
Shogun was a pretty good album on its release/leak, Haven't checked it out since though, definitely due a second listen. Good album, a lot better than The 'Crusade'.
i haven't listened to their earlier stuff much because i remember it sucking when i did, but i love Shogun. i love the combination of fun and catchy choruses with ridiculously cool riffs/solos. if they'd cut out some of the songs in between "Insurrection" and "Shogun" it would be a 5 star album; they're not bad, just forgettable compared to the first six songs and the last one.
Some of the songs are pretty catchy. The instrumentation is solid, as always, but overall it doesn't do too much for me. Though, I do not disagree with people calling this their best album. I'd probably give it a 3.2/5, rounding down to a 3.
yeah guitar solos are pretty overrated. bands being obligated to just throw one or two into the second half of the song to show that they can play is one of the most annoying metal cliches.
Not a bad album actually. These two are particularly good: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffVB-UIbA_k"]YouTube- Trivium - 02 Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis - Shogun[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdNYQYJcAvI"]YouTube- Trivium - 10 Like Callisto to a Star in Heaven - Shogun[/ame]
