Trivium offer another melodic metal anthem on new single, 'Catastrophist'

Trivium gives their fans something new & something old on 'Catastrophist.'

Sitting on a couch in a dark room, drinking beer and eating pop-corn, Matt Heafy and co. watch on the edge of their seats a woman fending for her life in a horror-movie-styled forest setting, pursued by unknown individuals, running in circles, as the band treats it like some twisted game. The message behind this video for the American band's latest melodic metal anthem, 'Catastrophist,' is an obvious one: we never had a chance when we're not the ones pulling the strings. It's about us consuming the endless cycles of tragedy and catastrophes - on any scale, from any corner of the globe - and having them all streamlined in their ugliness straight to our screens in the comfort of our own homes; a process not of our own that creates a sense of complacency, a deeper desensitization to the horrible shit that happens in the world, and can result in us treating these issues as "out of mind" despite being right in front of our sights.

As for the song itself, it's not half bad. If you want Trivium to be a more metalcore-orientated band like their first couple releases, then a) you're living too much in the past, and b) you'll be let down. For 'Catastrophist' is very much in the vein of where the quarter has been the last couple albums, but not that's a bad thing: big guitar leads and solos with even bigger vocal melodies. Their latest song really gets going, however, when after a couple of run-throughs of its giant "You're a catastrophe. The one who's come to devastate" chorus, the band switch shit up. Namely by bringing in some blast beats, a few lower-octave chugs, and harsher screams during its heavier bridge part, with some shorter Dream Theater-sounding prog measures thrown in as well. All seeing 'Catastrophist' twist and turn nicely over its six-minute run-time, before returning to its chorus for one final hurrah.

New album 'What The Dead Men Say' arrives April 24th.

'What the Dead Men Say' track-listing:

"IX"

"What the Dead Men Say"

"Catastrophist"

"Amongst the Shadows and the Stones"

"Bleed Into Me"

"The Defiant"

"Sickness Unto You"

"Scattering the Ashes"

"Bending the Arc to Fear"

"The Ones We Leave Behind"