#2: Trivium - Shogun
This album was sort of the same thing for me as
Ashes of the Wake is, it's an album that I didn't get to as quickly as I should have, and once realizing how good it actually is, I was disappointed in myself for not giving it a listen sooner.
Trivium, to me, have been releasing pretty good albums, consistently. I am aware that could be up for debate, but I never really seem to see myself just turning off a Trivium album out of disgust or hate, it's usually because i'm just not in the mood.
Shogun is definitely an album that should have gotten a listen from me much sooner than it did. I have a pretty good reason for it though. For whatever reason, I was under the impression that
Shogun was along the lines of the
St. Anger album for Trivium. You know, terrible and lacking in quality and anything captivating, and me being as young as I was, instead of listening to the album, I just listened to other people and decided the album isn't worth my time. Really wish I didn't do that, because it's one of my favorite Trivium albums to date, not entirely sure what i'd put below it,
In Waves, maybe. Honestly, out of all their albums, I find that this one really showcases their knowledge of heavy guitar chords, technical guitar solos, and really shows a good understanding of what a typical Trivium album should sound like. It does run like
In Waves does though, where it's a pretty long album, but none of the songs seem stale or overused, there's something new for each track until the end, and I really like that. A few standout tracks would include
Down From The Sky, and the finale,
Shogun. Also, if I hear anyone say that Matt sounds just like James Hetfield, in this album maybe, but i've seen Metallica and Trivium perform live, and in my opinion, neither of them sound anywhere alike, considering James Hetfield now sounds like someone chopped his balls off, nothing heavy or interesting about his voice, but that's besides the point. They may have
some similarity, but I never understood the comparison.