Band:	Trivium
Album:	The Sin And The Sentence
Style:	Alternative metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	October 2017

01. The Sin And The Sentence
02. Beyond Oblivion
03. Other Worlds
04. The Heart From Your Hate
05. Betrayer
06. The Wretchedness Inside
07. Endless Night
08. Sever The Hand
09. Beauty In The Sorrow
10. The Revanchist
11. Thrown Into The Fire

I don't know what sin produces a sentence like this but It's time to go on a sin spree.

Trivium are a band who struggle for consistency; for every bright spot, there is a dark spot waiting to eclipse it in short order. Since In Waves six years prior, the band had seemed almost determined to derail their forward momentum with two underwhelming at best releases in Vengeance Falls and Silence In The Snow. As if deciding fans had waited long enough, the band put out a record that reminds you why this band can withstand such droughts of quality, because every so often they can put a record as quality as The Sin And The Sentence.

At this point Trivium have had more than their fair share of 'comebacks' and 'returns to form', such that the phrases are somewhat redundant when applied to the band. The best way to describe the album would be to say its on the same side of the divide as the likes of Shogun and Ascendancy, AKA the good ones.

The band seem to have taken a conscious decision to evaluate what had worked well with their recent output and combine it with a renewed vigour and determination to make a great record rather than just put out the material they had amassed. Heafy sounds like he has learnt how best to use his clean voice ala Silence In The Snow but also when to inject some power for maximum effect and use his screamed voice. Songs like "Betrayer" and "Beauty In The Sorrow" seem like the perfect synthesis of this lesson and combine these two elements as a way of complementing each aspect rather relying on one to carry the other.

What Trivium have also had more than their fair share of other than 'comebacks' is drummers, with an almost Spinal Tap-esque rotating door of sticksmen behind the kit; here, it is the turn of (as time of writing) current drummer Alex Bent. Given this constant changing-up of members, the band have lacked a personality in the rhythmic department. Bent steps up to the plate and does manage to put his footprint on the songs, with his energetic style adding a extra boost to tracks like "Other Worlds" and "Sever The Hand"; whether this footprint is in concrete or in sand is yet to be seen.

The guitar work on the album is easily the best since Shogun, with the fretwork of Heafy and Beaulieu crafting some engrossing guitar lines that propel the songs along while adding depth and dimension. Chief among them are "The Heart From Your Hate" and "Beyond Oblivion", which should rank among some of the best guitar work the band has produced. Their guitar tones are tight and mesmerising, the perfect mix of power and audibility, resulting in a six-string assault that hooks you in before you realize just how heavy they actually are. "Other Worlds" and "The Wretchedness Inside" are good examples of this, adding colour to the songs while also serving to empower them as well.

The overall production work is a perfect fit for the material, with Wilbur's work being able to identity and amplify the strengths of each member and how best to slot it together like a jigsaw puzzle to create the picture the song aims for. It is heavy without relying on bone-shattering distortion and has a remarkable focus on a clean sound that allows you to hear, note for note, what each member is playing throughout.

It is this ability to hear everything that brings with it an unintended side effect; when the band drop the ball, they have nowhere to hide and the mistake is fully on show for all to see. "Endless Night" and "The Revanchist" are good ideas but the execution is what let them down, with the former sounding very generic and lacking sonic identity, while the latter is overly long such that it falls over its own feet in parts. They are two problems that are fixable, but in their current form they are a few notches down from the high-flying success the rest of the album is.

Trivium manage to undo the damage of the last two records and up the ante that In Waves laid the groundwork for. The Sin And The Sentence is easily the band's album of the decade and their strongest since Shogun. If you are someone whose enjoyment of the band drifts with each release (which is understandable given their fluctuating nature) then I would highly recommend you give this album a listen; it is their most complete record to date, drawing from each prior record and condensing it into one solid and vacuum-sealed package.