Before us is the reissue of "Ember to Inferno," the debut album from TRIVIUM — in recent years this young band has become quite well-known, having played hundreds of shows in America, Europe, Japan, and Australia, and at the end of 2006 they even toured as openers for IRON MAIDEN themselves. However, what we have here is their very first release. It was recorded in the summer of 2003, came out in October of that year on Lifeforce Records, and was reissued the following year with three additional tracks, by which time TRIVIUM had already moved to Roadrunner. Tracks 13 and 14 on the album were recorded in November 2003, while the final composition, "Demon," was taken from the band's demo recording. The two November tracks differ considerably from the main material on the record — they are far more aggressive and undeniably more interesting from a technical standpoint. As for the originally recorded compositions — what we have is metalcore, albeit an exceedingly juvenile variety (which is quite logical, as the guitarist-vocalist was 17 at the time of recording). Everything is built on very simple schemes: an aggressive section with extreme vocals, occasionally verging on thrash, alternates with obligatory clean vocal passages in every composition. The riffs are fairly melodic and sometimes even sound reminiscent of heavy metal. Objectively speaking, after listening to 3-4 compositions built on the described formula, you really want to hear something different, but no — we listen to all 12 songs in exactly this format. For a debut, the work is more than decent, but calling it truly serious, thoughtful, or interesting would be a stretch.
