Trivium - What the Dead Men Say

I will forever long for the feeling of hearing Ascendancy for the first time again as much any other metal fan whose "gateway years" coincided with the metalcore boom of the early-mid 2000s, but what has kept me a Trivium fan for the long haul is how their sound has continued to evolve with each album. Ember to Inferno through Shogun saw the band flex their heavier, thrash-laden muscles while more accessible hooks and melodies were explored during the In Waves through Silence in the Snow years. While my preferences lean more towards the former rather than the latter, the release of 2017's The Sin and the Sentence was a watershed moment not only for the band but also for me fully realizing that the best version of Trivium is when all these elements, and their extremes, come together. What the Dead Men Say, the band's ninth full-length album, continues where The Sin and the Sentence left off; offering a slew of heavy hitting, dexterous guitar riffs accompanied by captivating drum-work, heavy screams, and lush vocal melodies.

Killswitch Engage - Disarm The Descent

Whether you know them from their landmark albums Alive Or Just Breathing and The End Of Heartache or are more familiar with the short shorts and cape wearing on-stage antics of their lead guitarist Adam D, it only seemed fitting that the first review gracing our "Sounds Known" section would be from the extremely well known Killswitch Engage.  With Howard Jones gone and their original singer Jesse Leach back at the helm, these metalcore veterans return with their sixth full-length album, Disarm The Descent.  This latest offering brings a very welcome breath of fresh air to the band's discography and quite arguably some of the best tunes they've dished out since the aforementioned landmark albums.