Trivium - "In Waves"

 It's been an amazing morning. And this is due to the fact that I have had the pleasure of listening to the special edition of "In Waves", the fifth album from Floridian Metalcore titans, Trivium. And I would say it's the best album of 2011.
 "In Waves" is a cut above the rest of Trivium's releases, not to knock any of the others, as they're all phenomenal, but "In Waves" carries a little something more. There's a greater sense of uniqueness in this album, though the sound is that of traditional metalcore, with frequent guitar breakdowns, chugging riffs and an equal balance between scream and melodic vocals, Trivium seem to spice things up with their unique sense of passion and pride. Pride is a key word. You can quite clearly tell this is music being played with a high sense of pride and achievement, as a feeling of grace can be heard amongst the brutality and heaviness of the album, and as passion oozes out of every monstrous riff from Corey Beaulieu, every complex guitar solo and scream from Matt Heafy, every thunderous bass line from Paolo Gregoletto and every blast beat from latest recruit Nick Augusto, who proves himself a worthy and incredibly talented drummer, destined for a long and prosperous future in Trivium.
 There are many stand out moments on "In Waves", from the entire opening, consisting of the coupling of "Capsizing the Sea" and the album's title track, which could be one of my favourite album openings, to the seemingly deathcore inspired "Skyline's Severance" As well as the slower and softer emotion-welling bridge and solo heard in "Caustic Are the Ties That Bind", which sounds positively Maiden-esque, and the arrangement of "Forsake Not the Dream, which reminded me bizarrely of the kind of song one may find on Blink-182's "Dude Ranch", with the heaviness multiplied by at least ten. Not sure if that's what they had in mind, but hey, that's just what I thought.
 Finally, the outro of "Leaving This World Behind" features a gloomy and continuous riff, delivering the motion of drifting away, which gives an avid depiction of the listener at this point, who would be feeling gloomy as "In Waves" begins drifting away and they are leaving the world of the album behind. Unless you're me, who physically abused the repeat button on the CD player in my house.
 Overall, "In Waves" is a simply outstanding piece of metal. Trivium are a band who always discuss being influenced in interviews and "In Waves" is an album in which the group show a sense of being influenced and playing music in a traditional style and yet, it just seems so fresh and unique and if that's not the sign of an amazing album being created, I don't know what is. Furthermore, the music on this album is just some of the best music to jump around and headbang to, which gets me particularly excited for seeing them in December on the Metal Hammer Defenders of the Faith tour. Really, I'm quite confident "In Waves" is an album that will become a future classic metal album.