Trivium prove that you can try just too hard sometimes
Tonight is not your normal Trivium gig; tonight sees Trivium playing as their own tribute band. Well it's one way to keep a low profile, particularly when it involves dressing up in bizarre combinations of costumes - then again, it's only the second time they've done it. Considering that the show was billed as Ember and the Infernos, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the room isn't heaving. That doesn't stop the crowd being totally overexcited when the band first comes on to 'We Will Rock You'.
Of course, it's fancy dress metal-style, complete with ridiculous wigs, shades, and handlebar moustaches a Victorian gentleman would be proud of. Singer, Matt Heafy, in quite a convincing disguise, announces that "We're here to pay tribute to the best band in the world" and immediately whips the crowd in to a circle pit during the first song. Sadly, the first song 'Like Light to the Flies' isn't exactly a classic and Heafy sounds far too much like James Hetfield - it's pretty good though.
The second one is better, but it still sounds like Metallica and watching guitarist Corey play complete with sword in hand is far more entertaining. So far, so totally metal - but wait! What's that? A Bad Religion influence creeping in? And indeed, 'Something Dead Inside' channels the punk rock spirit and throws it together with grinding metal and pounding drums.
After a while, it all starts to descend into a blur and it's unintentional comedic moments like Heafy's moustache falling off that salvage the set. He doesn't seem too bothered by it, instead launching into 'The Deceived'. It's definitely one of the best songs of the set, with some awesome drumming as band and crowd clap together, arms in the air.
It makes sense that the first song after their proper unveiling - 'Welcome to the Trivium secret party' - is 'From Ember to Inferno'. It's fast, heavy and not bad at all even if half the audience aren't impressed. Bizarrely, their bassist is still in fancy dress but it doesn't stop the music from sliding into a one dimensional state. If the tunes all sounded the same before, it's nothing compared to now but the crowd loves it - a massive circle pit opens up to show appreciation.
Then comes guess-the-tune time, and obviously their favourite part of the set. "First of all, I wanna thank you for coming down to this little secret gig of ours. We didn't plan this out at all and that's what keeps it authentic." Snatch and snatch of songs follow each other as random as 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' and Green Day mixed in with an acoustic version of 'Dying in Your Arms' and possibly the first song Heafy ever wrote. It's a shame when they stop because it may be a shambles, but it's good fun and more interesting than the actual set.
Only a cover of Pantera's 'Domination' marks out the second half of the set. It's fantastic and shamefully one of the best of the whole set. Well, that is apart from a second bout of shambolic 'fuckin around' which sees them finally play 'Sweet Home Alabama' that they've been threatening to do all night. In the spirit of crowd interaction, a guy called Felix is called up on stage to sing 'Master of Puppets' and in fact he's bloody good.
Trivium finish off with 'Pulling Harder on the Strings of your Marty', and Heafy proves to us once and for all that the less he sounds like James Hetfield, the better the song generally is. It's a lot better than most of their stuff, even if you can hear the influences in it. The crowd are going wild, and it's one hell of a way to finish a set - I just wish more of it had been like that.