I like the fact Matt uses his regular (read not Hetfield aping) clean voice during Into the Mouth of Hell We March, but as a whole I think I actually prefer Kirisute Gomen. I think the former has a far better solo mind. Both still good songs though.
There's not a lot of difference to me, he just sings a bit more agressively depending on the music. Like I said, there aren't really many other ways that you can sing in thrash metal. I mean, in my opinion you could just as well say he's ripping off countless other thrash vocalists, but he just happens to sound a bit like Hetfield. It's like when people say Greg Puciato from The Dillinger Escape Plan rips off of Mike Patton and Trent Reznor, or that Matt Bellamy rips off Thom Yorke and Jeff Buckley. Aside from the occasional influence they just happen to sound similar.
I've only got Youtube links. They haven't been removed yet, at least: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ccl8fIloo @ Dean: To be honest I've never seen a huge similarity between Matt's 'harsh' voice and James', I just use the comparison because it's easier to refer to than "harsh thrashy voice" or similar. I just plain don't like Matt's said voice
I'm not going to embellish this one bit: "Into the Mouth of Hell We March" is one of the best Trivium songs I've ever heard.
It's been up for a few days now, but since nobody's mentioned it yet, the cover for Shogun is officially done.
I know this is slightly necroposting but you can listen to Throes Of Perdition here I'm actually really looking forward to hearing this album now. 3 of the 4 tracks that have been released have been fucking incredable. Bar maybe Detonation and a few others, they're certainly better than anything on the Crusade.
I'm really stoked for this album now. This new song isn't my favourite they've released so far, but even so it's very good. I like the slightly more 'brutal' direction they've taken. I'm thinking I'll buy the special edition once it comes out on the 30th.
ShÅgun is my second-favorite album of the year so far. It's really, really good. It's not as good as Ascendancy, but it's still really good.
Musically Shogun is awesome, vocally, it's an improvement from The Crusade (I like that he's brought back some screaming), however I still don't think it's as good as Ascendancy. Part of it has to do with the sometimes-boring song structure and some of the choruses are kinda boring too, atleast compared to Ascendancy.
Actually, I've got to agree. I like it even more than Ascendancy, which is one of my favourite 'metalcore' albums of all time. I really like the somewhat more "brutal" approach they've taken this time.
I agree with Jawsome that Ascendancy has stronger choruses, but I think all-round Shogun is better. Although, I don't like are the whispered/spoken vocals they included at points. They're kind of unnecessary for the most part and don't really sound that great.
I've listened to it around three times so far, and I've decided it's my favourite Trivium album. Everything just seems to have been stepped up a notch. Particularly Matt's singing. While he's no Phil Labonte, his range is really improved. Even the growls have been varied somewhat, with some Randy Blythe style stuff in Insurrection. I was really surprised by the little bluesy solo in the interlude half way through Shogun as well. I'll probably get a lot of "you just like it because of the 'OMG new Trivium' effect" or something, but that's my two cents. EDIT: Okay, I've confirmed every song on the album has been recorded with seven string guitars. They've uploaded "riffing" videos of all the songs on Youtube, which show it. I thought I might have been right.