| Written by Alex Stojanovic TRACK LISTING Bury Me With My Screams Struck Dead (Pain Is Easier To Remember) Six Walls Surround Me TRIVIUM IS: Matt Heafy - Lead vocals & guitars Corey Beaulieu - Guitars & vocals Paolo Gregoletto - Bass & vocals Alex Bent - Drums Release Date: October 31, 2025 Label: Roadrunner Records Website: www.trivium.org www.facebook.com/Trivium |  |
Since 2003, Trivium have established a really consistent release schedule, with new records coming out every two years, with a couple of back-to-back years, and a couple of 3-year gaps. However, there's a first time for everything. Having released two records in back-to-back years during Covid, those being What The Dead Men Say in 2020 and In The Court Of The Dragon in 2021, they spent the next two years touring behind the two records extensively, which also made up for lost touring time from the pandemic. This was followed by taking 2024 off to work on putting together their own studio at their airplane hangar, and when the band headed out with Bullet For My Valentine earlier this year on the Poisoned Ascendancy tour, new music was the next step. Initially planned to be released during the tour, plans changed when the tour with Bullet wasn't going to continue on, but they decided to release new music anyway. With touring still left to do this year, an EP seemed like the logical choice, and the result is the new 3-song EP Struck Dead. I have to say that the rather cartoon-ish artwork of a dragon is obvious Japanese influence from...I wonder who!
The release of this EP also got hit with a pretty oddly timed situation, and that was the departure of Alex Bent, and the band found themselves in the drummer search again; something that turned them into a meme amongst fans in the last decade when they were constantly changing drummers. It was oddly timed because the EP was coming out, and they were heading back out on tour. Regardless, it was the end of an era, and for the first time in Trivium history, it was s split where both parties left on good terms compared to all the other drummer splits.
Getting back to the main focus here, Struck Dead finds Trivium continuing with the direction they established with The Sin & The Sentence, but these three songs feel like a continuation of In The Court Of The Dragon, especially with the technicality. One thing that's become apparent with several Trivium songs over the last few releases is that the bridges in particular feel overstuffed with parts and sections, and many changes happening at a pretty quick pace. It makes the songs feel more like riff salads and it eliminates some of the feel and flow. On top of that, as incredible of a drummer as Alex Bent is, I've always said that I feel he tends to overuse his technical abilities with incredibly busy fills and grooves, making the songs feel like more of a technical showcase rather than an actual musical composition.
That's not to say the songs themselves are bad because Trivium always know how to create captivating moments and hooks. You can also once again hear the band giving little nods to their past material in ways, like the main structure in "Struck Dead" feels like a direct throwback to "In Waves" with the djent style main riff that repeats and a melodic chorus that happens twice before the bridge takes you somewhere else. You can even hear In Waves-style riffing in "Six Walls". Lyrically, the EP is an open-wound with the skin peeled back to reveal the tough times that Matt Heafy has gone on record to say he went through in 2024. The band have also claimed that these songs are the spirit animals of Ascendancy, given that they were written and recorded while the band were rehearsing Ascendancy for the 20th anniversary tour. It's still very much in the vein of what Trivium sounds like since The Sin & The Sentence, but the energy and the spirit of Ascendancy is definitely there. Struck Dead is a fantastic appetizer for what's to come with their eleventh album, and now that they have Alex Rudinger in the band, I'm curious to see how his drumming style will differ from Alex Bent's and affect the new material that's cooking up right now.
The release of this EP also got hit with a pretty oddly timed situation, and that was the departure of Alex Bent, and the band found themselves in the drummer search again; something that turned them into a meme amongst fans in the last decade when they were constantly changing drummers. It was oddly timed because the EP was coming out, and they were heading back out on tour. Regardless, it was the end of an era, and for the first time in Trivium history, it was s split where both parties left on good terms compared to all the other drummer splits.
Getting back to the main focus here, Struck Dead finds Trivium continuing with the direction they established with The Sin & The Sentence, but these three songs feel like a continuation of In The Court Of The Dragon, especially with the technicality. One thing that's become apparent with several Trivium songs over the last few releases is that the bridges in particular feel overstuffed with parts and sections, and many changes happening at a pretty quick pace. It makes the songs feel more like riff salads and it eliminates some of the feel and flow. On top of that, as incredible of a drummer as Alex Bent is, I've always said that I feel he tends to overuse his technical abilities with incredibly busy fills and grooves, making the songs feel like more of a technical showcase rather than an actual musical composition.
That's not to say the songs themselves are bad because Trivium always know how to create captivating moments and hooks. You can also once again hear the band giving little nods to their past material in ways, like the main structure in "Struck Dead" feels like a direct throwback to "In Waves" with the djent style main riff that repeats and a melodic chorus that happens twice before the bridge takes you somewhere else. You can even hear In Waves-style riffing in "Six Walls". Lyrically, the EP is an open-wound with the skin peeled back to reveal the tough times that Matt Heafy has gone on record to say he went through in 2024. The band have also claimed that these songs are the spirit animals of Ascendancy, given that they were written and recorded while the band were rehearsing Ascendancy for the 20th anniversary tour. It's still very much in the vein of what Trivium sounds like since The Sin & The Sentence, but the energy and the spirit of Ascendancy is definitely there. Struck Dead is a fantastic appetizer for what's to come with their eleventh album, and now that they have Alex Rudinger in the band, I'm curious to see how his drumming style will differ from Alex Bent's and affect the new material that's cooking up right now.
FINAL RATING
| | |
RSS Feed
