Vengeance Falls is Trivium’s sixth album and follows up 2011′s In Waves which saw Trivium become more varied in their musical delivery, branching out in all directions. Vengeance Falls sees that they follow in the same path as in In Waves, but almost they combine everything from past albums into this one. The few singles are available to listen to - “Brave This Storm”, “Strife” and “No Way To Heal” - can give you a clear sign of how the album will sound in full.
Back in the day I wasn’t exactly a massive fan of Trivium, but such as it were their video for “A Gunshot To The Head of Trepidation” was on music TV (remember those days?) and it soon piqued my interest. I got what most people call their début, or their major label début, “Ascendancy” which is a classic in its own right. However, Vengeance Falls is an album that I wasn’t looking forward to. With David Draiman (Disturbed, Device) producing this album you can tell that the album is way too compressed, and I’m not exactly one to bitch about the mastering of an album but Vengeance Falls takes the cake. Ok then, turn it down halfway…
With “Brave The Storm” starting off this album really strong, it does take a little while for me to get my head around it. It’s a massive forward leap from In Waves if you’re looking at it that way and fans will debating the better album. I’ve listened to In Waves quite extensively because I would like to think it’s one of my current favourite Trivium albums, excluding any aforementioned classics. Conversely, In Waves felt like an album of two halves, because Vengeance Falls feels like a complete and whole album. I’m just saying that I feel, as a long-time Trivium fan, that Vengeance Falls feels like Trivium…but on a whole new level.
After listening to the album several times one thing is pretty clear to me and that is lyrically this album is much darker than previous albums, or Matt at his most desperate. This can especially be heard in the closing track “Wake (The End is Nigh)” and if this is something then it actually feels…I don’t know…’right’ that the album seems so dark. What exactly does “Vengeance Falls” mean anyway? The album flows quite well, as opposed to my earlier point about In Waves, and if this is a marking stick in 2013 then I’d say that Trivium (collectively) are in an awesome place now. There will many disputes over the album – some people will love it, some people will hate it and then some will be in-between. You cannot please everyone, it seems today, but I for one will come to love this album over time.
There are a few favourite tracks from this album already. The opener “Brave This Storm”, “Strife”, the title track which plods along nicely, “No Way To Heal”, “Incineration: The Broken World” - actually, come to think of it, most of the songs from this album. The main question which kept popping up in my head when I was listening to was where does it actually sit? I always try to rank albums in the band’s collection, and I think that Vengeance Falls sits somewhere between both Shogun and In Waves.
Overall, Vengeance Falls is a grower of an album. It may not take for the first listen or even second listen, maybe the third, to sink but by the fourth listen you’ll be instantly hooked. The production, yes, may raise a few eyebrows but try to look past that and actually see Trivium are trying to accomplish here. Vengeance Falls has a lot to offer if you’re willing to give it the time.
RATING: ★★★★☆
