Heavy metal band Trivium first appeared on the Metal scene circa 2005 with their sophomore album Ascendency. Marked by aggressive, growling screams and contrastingly melodic vocals throughout choruses, the group were lauded for their affinity towards Thrash Metal tropes, dual-harmonised guitars and extensively complex soloing.

Guitar One Magazine heralded Trivium as representing a return to the golden age of Thrash Metal with a sound reminiscent of Metallica’s landmark album Master Of Puppets. Twelve years on and the group have released their eighth album, The Sin And The Sentence, which displays a sound that is years in the making.

The Sin And The Sentence encircles crushing riffs and soaring solos within booming and rhythmically technically flawless drum and bass playing. On lead single The Heart From Your Hate lead singer Matt Heafy exhibits his rich baritone voice in what is possibly their most refined Metalcore composition to date (call it the wise, older sibling of Ascendency’s Dying In Your Arms.) Title track The Sin And The Sentence opens with fearsome speed and blistering precision where melodic singing is undercut by lead guitarist Corey Beaulieu’s gravelly screaming.

Beaulieu and Heafy share lead guitar duties throughout songs, shifting between melodically driven phrases and flurries of ferocious shredding. The duos chemistry as guitarists is dynamic and effortless. See Betrayer where phrases weave amongst one another seamlessly with speed and precision. The Wretchedness Inside is a head-banging standout due to long-time bassist Paolo Gregoletto’s rumbling low-end.

From the albums gravity-dense breakdowns to its blazing solos and surprisingly hooky singing The Sing and The Sentence manages to encapsulate the most refined aspects of a decade’s worth of artistic evolution.