Trivium deal in contradictions. The Floridians are brutally heavy yet stubbornly melodic—or somewhat melodic, at least—combining the sheer physical force of extreme metal with some very traditional heavy-metal instincts.
Matt Heafy is both a commanding frontman and a formidable guitarist, while the harmonized leads he trades with Corey Beaulieu owe an obvious debt to Iron Maiden. Add the huge, triumphant choruses and it becomes easy to understand why Trivium have managed to reach an audience well beyond the usual extreme-metal constituency without sacrificing much of their aggression.
And what an audience. L'Olympia is packed to the gills and erupts from the first note, with moshing, crowd-surfing, walls of death, circle pits and good old-fashioned headbanging competing for floor space. The band keeps feeding the frenzy with tantalizing riffs, massive grooves and those soaring twin-guitar melodies, finding the sweet spot between something you can sing along to and something you can smash into your neighbor to.
An absolute blinder of a gig: beer, hair, tattoos, leather and one enormous racket. The epitome of Heavy fucking Metal.
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