Say what you want, but The Crusade is quite clearly too old fashioned for today's market. Sometimes you can hear the true trivium coming through, but the "trash metal" sections seem original and boring to me. Detonation is a perfect example of this. The first half of the song is really tedious and uninteresting, then at 2:19 the metalcore beginnings of the band starts to shine through and I enjoy listening to the song more.
Another thing that worries me is that to me their songs are really lacking in emotion now. Especially in terms of the vocals. The decision to cut down on the growling has really stricken me as a strange one. Matt Heafy's vocals are by no means terrible, but they seem to lack the character and depth that the growling added to the music.
Also I feel that the quality of the riffs are generally better on Ascendancy and From Ember To Inferno. Not to say that the riffs in The Crusade are terrible, but they lack the punch that their previous albums had.
I'm sure I've missed a few things out that bug me about this album, but feel free to add to my post or argue against it.
All in all I think Trivium have tried a new direction and I applaud this brave move, but I hope they return to what they were doing before for their next album.

I like the crusade, but its really not as good as ascendancy, trivium is more metalcore than a heavy metal band, and the first part of detination is really a bit boring, but I don't think they will go back to the metalcore style, but I liked more a little the guitar riffs on ascendancy, but I listend to Broken One, and the guitar riff little bit more metalcore than heavy metal I think, well I hope they will go back a little bit to the metalcore style

i like most of the new stuff, but imo yeah ascendancy was better, the crusade seems rushed..i love detonition from start to finish... but the screams brought songs on to a new level, which is what i miss in it

I don't think Matt really "growled"

I've said so much about this topic it's unbelievable...
In short, I agree.

QUOTE(Chaser90 @ Jan 21 2007, 08:43 AM) [snapback]341998[/snapback]I like the crusade, but its really not as good as ascendancy, trivium is more metalcore than a heavy metal band, and the first part of detination is really a bit boring, but I don't think they will go back to the metalcore style, but I liked more a little the guitar riffs on ascendancy, but I listend to Broken One, and the guitar riff little bit more metalcore than heavy metal I think, well I hope they will go back a little bit to the metalcore style
Metalcore is a sub genre of heavy metal. The only reason why Trivium were labeled metalcore in the first place was because of the screaming. Although I do agree that Ascendancy and ETI were better albums than The Crusade, Trivium probably won't go back to their old style much, but lets just hope on the next ablum that they intergrate more of their old style with the new.

I love the Crusade and Trivium's new style in general. Musicianship in general has gone WAY up since Ascendancy (the 8 minute instrumental title track for The Crusade is a great example of this). Vocal wise, I love the change too. Everyone who says "Oh, they stopped screaming now they're not original anymore/they show no emotion/they sold out" is pretty brain dead. For one thing, almost EVERY SINGLE NEW remotely popular metal/metalcore/mellow-death metal/whatever the hell you want to call them band screams now. I don't have anything against screaming at all (I love Arch Enemy and Lamb of God too) but most of the time it gets boring when its overdone. You can express a MUCH wider range of emotion through singing then you can by screaming too.
Sorry to be focusing on the singing, but that's what everyone seems to harp on. Usually I ignore topics about people not liking the new direction Trivium went (mostly because 98% of the time they're made by an immature myspace kid who thinks he's cool because he slam dances at local hardcore shows). but the topic creator actually backed up why he preferred Ascendancy over The Crusade without using the word "gay"
Trivium was the reason I stopped cutting my hair and started to learn guitar almost 2 years ago. I was the first kid in my highschool with their T-shirt

QUOTE(jamsea @ Jan 21 2007, 02:42 PM) [snapback]342080[/snapback]I love the Crusade and Trivium's new style in general. Musicianship in general has gone WAY up since Ascendancy (the 8 minute instrumental title track for The Crusade is a great example of this). Vocal wise, I love the change too. Everyone who says "Oh, they stopped screaming now they're not original anymore/they show no emotion/they sold out" is pretty brain dead. For one thing, almost EVERY SINGLE NEW remotely popular metal/metalcore/mellow-death metal/whatever the hell you want to call them band screams now. I don't have anything against screaming at all (I love Arch Enemy and Lamb of God too) but most of the time it gets boring when its overdone. You can express a MUCH wider range of emotion through singing then you can by screaming too.
Sorry to be focusing on the singing, but that's what everyone seems to harp on. Usually I ignore topics about people not liking the new direction Trivium went (mostly because 98% of the time they're made by an immature myspace kid who thinks he's cool because he slam dances at local hardcore shows). but the topic creator actually backed up why he preferred Ascendancy over The Crusade without using the word "gay"
Trivium was the reason I stopped cutting my hair and started to learn guitar almost 2 years ago. I was the first kid in my highschool with their T-shirt
IMO the muscianship on Ascendancy is better than The Crusade. The solos aren't just sweeping, the riffs were better, and the songs in general were better. I like Matt's new vocal style but I think he should integrate more screaming into his vocals, because he has an intense scream.

QUOTE(jamsea @ Jan 21 2007, 06:42 AM) [snapback]342080[/snapback]I love the Crusade and Trivium's new style in general. Musicianship in general has gone WAY up since Ascendancy (the 8 minute instrumental title track for The Crusade is a great example of this). Vocal wise, I love the change too. Everyone who says "Oh, they stopped screaming now they're not original anymore/they show no emotion/they sold out" is pretty brain dead. For one thing, almost EVERY SINGLE NEW remotely popular metal/metalcore/mellow-death metal/whatever the hell you want to call them band screams now. I don't have anything against screaming at all (I love Arch Enemy and Lamb of God too) but most of the time it gets boring when its overdone. You can express a MUCH wider range of emotion through singing then you can by screaming too.
Sorry to be focusing on the singing, but that's what everyone seems to harp on. Usually I ignore topics about people not liking the new direction Trivium went (mostly because 98% of the time they're made by an immature myspace kid who thinks he's cool because he slam dances at local hardcore shows). but the topic creator actually backed up why he preferred Ascendancy over The Crusade without using the word "gay"
Trivium was the reason I stopped cutting my hair and started to learn guitar almost 2 years ago. I was the first kid in my highschool with their T-shirt
I don't have problem with crusade and the "new style" , just I say Matt should scream the older songs in live..., but I liked the guitar riffs feeling more on ascendancy a little bit than on crusade

Interesting how The Crusade, in just 3.5 months has sold over 94,000 copies in the US. Just 50,000 short of Ascendancy in which will be coming up on being released for 2 years.

QUOTE(Ninju @ Jan 21 2007, 09:33 AM) [snapback]342100[/snapback]Interesting how The Crusade, in just 3.5 months has sold over 94,000 copies in the US. Just 50,000 short of Ascendancy in which will be coming up on being released for 2 years.
I don't think that has anything to do with the quality of the album. Trivium weren't nearly as well-known as they are now when Ascendancy was released, so it's a sure thing that when The Crusade was released, there would be bigger flocks of people going to get it. If people like Trivium then they're probably gonna get both of their albums, and obviously if there's an album that has had a lot of publicity about to be released, then people are more likely to buy that first.