After thrusting themselves into the public consciousness with second album, Ascendancy, The Crusade sees Orlando, Florida’s Trivium make their bid for heavy metal super-stardom.

Definitely a deliberately more commercial album, one can’t help be struck by the fact that only the closing track breaks the five minute barrier, while Matt Heafy’s vocals definitely stick to the cleaner singing. The appropriately-named single ‘Anthem (We Are Fire)’ is the successor to ‘A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation’, with it’s pool party video already in heavy rotation on MTV2. Meanwhile, ‘The Rising’ produces a pure stadium rock sing-along chorus, calling on listeners to “raise your voices with me and sing this song of unity”, which will no doubt go down well live. ‘This World Can’t Tear Us Apart’ is another positive, life-affirming track, while ‘And Sadness Will Sear’ also has a surprisingly radio-friendly sound.

That’s not to say long-term fans need be alienated – Trivium are very clearly trying to move up a notch rather than selling out. Simply because this album’s a bit more polished around the edges doesn’t mean it isn’t packed with some intricate axe-wielding, not least the riff on ‘To The Rats’ and the eight-minute instrumental title track that rounds off the album. In their angry moments they sound like Metallica if they still hate youth and hunger about them, and that’s pretty impressive for a band only on their third album, all of whom are younger than me. Lars and co will be wishing St Anger had lived up to anything like this – for, while I don’t think The Crusade quite tops Ascendancy, it certainly comes pretty close to rivalling it.
(4/5)