Trivium, The Sword, Protest The Hero Live!

Trivium, The Sword, Protest The Hero
Metro, Chicago
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

It’s uncommon anymore to see three bands that sound completely different from one another at a non-festival show. This is especially true for heavy metal, where, for whatever reason, headliner-plus-four-sound-alike-openers gigs have become status quo.

Lucky for Metro goers that wasn’t the case Tuesday night. In fact, it became apparent very quickly – about half a song – into Protest The Hero’s set that nobody, for better or worse, was going to sound like these young Canadians. Sometimes, great playing gets in the way of good songwriting and that was obviously the case with PTH, whose members aren’t even old enough to drink. Tim Miller and Luke Hoskin hyper guitar runs and Rody Walker’s schizo scream/growl vocals made the group’s songs sound something like the math metal of Dillinger Escape Plan or the prog alt-rock of Mars Volta, but even those bands have an occasional memorable chorus or repeating melody. If there was actual songwriting present, it was buried deep under the noisy chaos. Protest The Hero, whose debut record, Kezia (Vagrant), was released in April, is the definition of ADD metal – music for fans who don’t have the patience to stick with one riff, melody, or vocal refrain too long. Unfortunately these weren’t the patrons who made up this night’s crowd, a crowd that continuously bated Walker into verbal confrontations. Sadly, that was the best part of their set.

If Protest The Hero was a bottle of Jolt cola, The Sword was a bong hit. The four-piece have toured continuously since they released Age Of Winter (Kemado) in February, and it showed: This was the sharpest of their four Chicago stops this year. The slow churning riffs of “Barael’s Blade” and “March Of The Lor” didn’t have the aggression to ignite many moshpits, but they were excellent case studies for bands seeking heaviness *and* catchiness. Like his idols Black Sabbath, Sword frontman/guitarist J.D. Cronise crafts doom metal with a sharp pop sensibility, and it translates well live where the fuzzy power chords of “Iron Swan” and new tune “Frost Giant’s Daughter” served as perfect examples of the band’s fuzzy, throwback sound.

Headliners Trivium are also throwbacks, but not to Sabbath’s early-’70s prime. Trivium’s fond gazes are instead aimed at ‘80s thrash. Yet the group’s first two records, Ember To Inferno and Ascendancy, were above-average metalcore at best. There were promising signs, though, and those signs were fully realized on Trivium’s superb second Roadrunner release, *The Crusade,* an album that presents them as contemporary thrash leaders .

So it wasn’t shocking Crusade’s material went over much better at Metro than did older tunes. “Entrance Of The Conflagration” and “Detonation,” two of the new record’s best tracks, were a perfect one-two punch to open the show because they immediately showcased the new-and-improved Trivium. There has been some hubbub already (Crusade just came out October 10th) that Trivium’s idolization of Metallica is too obvious and that guitarist/vocalist Matthew Heafy’s newfound singing voice is awful similar to James Hetfield’s. It would be lying to say Metallica influences couldn’t be heard on “Tread The Floods” but so could Testament, Exodus, and many of thrash’s hardest hitters. The Hetfield comparisons can’t be ignored, either. Heafy screamed his way through Trivium’s first two records but now approaches songs as more of a true singer, and is still sculpting his voice. He may sound like Hetfield, but he shreds like Dave Mustaine, giving Trivium a scary guitar tandem. Heafy and co-six stringer Corey Beaulieu aren’t among those who consider solos indulgent and unnecessary, which they proved throughout the night with round after round of nimble solos.

The old songs didn’t sound bad, but that had more to do with the band’s gear setup than with their execution. Heafy seems to have denounced screaming altogether because those parts were largely left to Beaulieu on all pre-Crusade material, with the exception of excellent set closer “Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr,” though he got some help. Anyone who has seen screamers knows “the face,” which is usually a deep red or light purple and is home to numerous bulging veins. But somehow Beaulieu roared like Satan resurrected on “Ember To Inferno” despite putting out the effort of someone singing along with the car radio. Nobody is saying lip-synching, mind you, only that this particular vocal effect provided a significant boost.

But that was only one disappointment during an impressive set. Heafy sounded fantastic despite a relatively short “singing” career, and more importantly, is quickly becoming a commanding frontman, even leading the audience in a call-and-response sing-along during “Anthem (We Are The Fire).” “They don’t do this anymore,” the 20-year-old said with a laugh.

He’s right: It’s an old-school move from an old-school loving band. A band that just might be capable of making old school the new, new school.

– Trevor Fisher

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly