LIVE REVIEW: Trivium @ O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester

With a career spanning nearly 25 years, the form of TRIVIUM in recent years is arguably the strongest since their explosive inception. Whilst 2005’s Ascendancy, arguably one of the best metal records of the 21st Century, is still touted as a defining moment for the Floridian troupe or 2008’s Shogun is revered as a progressive metal masterpiece, recent albums, beginning with 2017’s The Sin And The Sentence, has seen TRIVIUM reaffirm their status in the upper echelons of metal. After a highly productive time in the COVID years (that saw 2020’s What The Dead Men Say and 2021’s In The Court Of The Dragon), finally, the band are back on UK soil, often touted their second home, for the biggest headlining shows of their career. Originally scheduled for 2021, two years later, and the Dead Men & Dragons has finally arrived and judging from the enormous crowd congregating at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse, excitement is at fever pitch.

With both TESSERACT and FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY unable to accommodate the rescheduled dates, it’s down to homegrown heroes MALEVOLENCE to kick off proceedings and there is no better band to inject bout after bout of adrenaline than the Steel City shredders. The band are in a purple patch of form, with two career-defining shows at Bloodstock 2021 and 2022 and last year’s Malicious Intent sending their notoriety into the stratosphere, MALEVOLENCE arrive at the biggest venues of their career in fine fettle.

And boy do they deliver. From the moment of the title track from last year’s aforementioned record drops, bedlam ensures with arms swinging and heads banging and the crowd sit in the palms of Alex Taylor‘s hands. Such a start might be an eye-opener but for MALEVOLENCE, it’s business as usual and they plough their way through a storming romp of cuts from their latest studio cut. Life Sentence ignites sheer chaos in the pit and Still Waters Run Deep‘s NOLA-inspired grooves and deep vocal croons from backing vocalist Konan Hall reinforce that MALEVOLENCE are so much more than a one-dimensional hardcore band.

Self Supremacy, a anthem in its own right for the modern age, bares witness to one of the biggest circle pits Victoria Warehouse has ever witnessed, the sombre Higher Place sees a sea of lighers ignite and phone torches shimmer as the band dial down the pace and show their softer side, and a one-two punch in closing salvo Keep Your Distance and On Broken Glass ends their time on stage in the most explosive of fashions. Make no mistake, with a band like MALEVOLENCE at the helm, British metal is in safe hands.

Rating: 9/10

Despite a career reaching nearly three decades and influencing a myriad of bands across the metal spectrum, German metallers HEAVEN SHALL BURN have never quite the impact they deserve in the UK, which is a crying shame as they amalgamation of melo-death shredding and pummelling breakdowns is a wicked concoction indeed. As such, landing a main support to tonight’s headliners gives the German outfit a fantastic opportunity to present their craft to thousands of people and for large portions of their time on stage, the band excel.

A one-two punch in opening foray My Heart And The Ocean and Bring The War Home is a wicked opening statement as a cacophony of hefty riffs from guitarists Maik Weichert and Alexander Dietz hit like a sledgehammer whilst frontman Marcus Bischoff displays a high level of energy, prowling the stage and dispatching his vocal snarls to wondrous effect.

From there, the band blitz their way through a length set, largely comprised of material from 2020’s Of Truth And Sacrifice, and their consistency at replicating their high-octane metal is impressive. Übermacht‘s mid-tempo stomp is a guaranteed pit surger, March Of Retribution chorus is emphatic and a closing duo (a cover of EDGE OF SANITY‘s shred-tastic Black Tears and anthemic Endzeit) ends the set on a high. And although there were moments where the band’s impact faltered, largely due to the rather one-dimensional approach to their sound, and at its worst felt like a bit of a slog, HEAVEN SHALL BURN can find comfort in the fact that when all is said and done, they delivered a fine performance on the biggest of stages they’ve graced on UK soil.

Rating: 7/10

TRIVIUM‘s relationship with their UK fanbase has been a long and solid partnership and judging from the fact that Victoria Warehouse is packed to the rafters upon their entrance to the stage, before a note has even been struck, it’s clear as day just how cherished this band are in this part of the world. Largely, this is down to the band’s incredible catalogue of records and tonight, TRIVIUM run a victory lap for a heroes’ homecoming that leaves no stone unturned.

A one-two punch in opener Rain and Like Light To The Flies is one hell of an opening statement and ignites sheer bedlam amongst the crowd as Matt Heafy and his bandmates inject a surge of adrenaline right from the get-go. Such is the breadth and excellence of TRIVIUM‘s discography that they can drop such anthems as set openers, but over the course of their headlining set the hits just keep on coming. To The Rats‘ thrashing tendencies from The Crusade has aged like a fine wine, prog metal epic Shogun is a triumphant closure before the encore and the crooning The Heart From You Hate is one of the best metal anthems of the modern age, and one in which Matt Heafy particularly excels at in the vocal deliveries.

Just like Birmingham the night before, in Manchester, crowd injuries threatened to derail the momentum with both Throes Of Perdition and Strife being halted by the band so medical attention can be administered to those in need. The lightening response from Heafy to alert the medical team to those who need help was commendable and the way in which he controlled the pause before picking right back up from where they paused was as smooth as it could be; demonstrating the professionalism with the TRIVIUM camp.

Blemish aside, when the band are firing on all cylinders, it’s difficult to fault TRIVIUM. They ooze class and drop banger after banger. Cuts from In The Court Of The Dragon (Like A Sword Over Damocles) and What The Dead Men Say (the title track and Amongst The Shadows & Stone) sit comfortably alongside their back catalogue, although it was slightly surprising that we didn’t experience more newer material – especially since the tour is in promotion of their latest studio outings. Elsewhere, Drowned And Torn Asunder sees the band welcome MALEVOLENCE shredder Josh Bains to rip through the track, a nice touch, and encore of In Waves and Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr ends the set on the biggest of highs. In decades gone by, we had IRON MAIDEN and METALLICA spear-heading the heavy metal charge at the top of the summit. In the 2020s, we have TRIVIUM. They are a flag-bearer for our generation.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Jess Robinson here: 

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