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[6.5/10] Avoiding this current wave of quasi-melodic death metal / hardcore / thrash / whatever is seemingly impossible given the glutton of bands playing this said style. Everyone and their mother seems intent on recycling the riffing from Slaughter Of The Soul and throwing in some clean vocals for the sake of being 'diverse.' A novel idea indeed, but much in the same way thrash metal had its hierarchy in the late 80's, the melodic death metal scene is easily divisible into several leagues, each with a steadily decreasing quality level. Heading up the league of death / hardcore / thrash alongside current bandwagon jumpers Himsa, The Black Dahlia Murder, and As I Lay Dying is Florida's Trivium. Ember To Inferno is a hackneyed attempt at capitalizing on this enduring trend. Trivium is a three-piece headed up by guitarist and lead throat Matt Heafy, a man whose chops are instantly impressive. His triplets, alternate and speed picking are dead-on, making one wonder if he can pull it off live while handling vocal duties. Heafy also possesses some melodic class, but his melodies and chord progressions are at this point, third rate. Heafy's vocals are gruff, discernable and ferocious, but his clean vox bear far too much of a resemblance to Taproot's Stephen Richards. No need to elaborate further at this point. Almost immediately it is apparent that Trivium lacks that special intangible that separates the subgenre's top bands from the imitators. Songs like ‘Falling To Grey’, ‘Requiem’, ‘Fugue’ and ‘To Burn The Eye’ all feature riffing and melodies we've heard too many times in the past 5 years. 'Soulless' would be an apt description for Embers To Inferno. Instead of building upon the foundation laid by the subgenre's forefathers, Trivium is intent on using the same tracing paper, never adding anything fresh or inventive. Anders Bjorler would have discarded many of these ideas years ago, but obviously there is some excitement in chasing a trend. Given Trivium's relatively young age (Heafy is only 17), the band does have some time in which to grow and develop some semblance of an identity. If Trivium would head more in a technical thrash direction and forsake many of its generic melodic ideas, the band would be onto something. Surely this release will please those who crave anything even remotely tinged with melodic death metal, but for those who are seeking something with more of a soul, look elsewhere. Climbing out of the 'C' league is a tough task, just ask Nuclear Assault. Related Link(s):
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