Just four months ago, Trivium were here as one of three up-and-coming bands on the Roadrage tour. While, even then, they were the band everyone wanted to see – forced to headline every night, rather than rotate as planned – by now the word has truly spread. Back for a proper headline tour, most of the shows are sold out, and the Zodiac is absolutely packed.

It’s not difficult for opening band It Dies Today to get a reaction, because they’re already faced with a packed and captive crowd, rather than an empty room. Playing a fairly generic – but solid – metal/hardcore blend, they really look comfortable striking all the poses on stage, but there’s little interaction with the audience until halfway through. Nonetheless they have a few people wind-milling around, and it appears that they won over a few more friends by the end.

All That Remains are a similar prospect, and another obvious choice for the bill, having previously supported Killswitch Engage. Their songs are a bit more structured, with melodic interludes and guitar solos – rather than bludgeoning slabs of noise – but they actually look less experienced on stage, judging from how the frontman handles heckles from the crowd.

It seems an age waiting for Trivium, and whether it’s for technical reasons or to build the anticipation, it certainly has the latter effect, with the crowd chanting impatiently. When they finally take the stage, it’s to a rapturous reception, as they launch straight into the first of many songs from their breakthrough Ascendancy album. With a longer set this time – unlike Roadrage, where they still officially shared equal billing, despite playing last – they’re able to incorporate more, including songs from their debut Ember To Inferno, such as ‘If I Could Collapse The Masses’, and an impromptu ‘happy birthday’, which proves the most successful sing along of the night.

If the crowd don’t know the words to all the others, their enjoyment is still clear from their reaction when Matt Heafy introduces ‘Suffocating Sight’ as “the crowd-surfing song”. It’s true that as a young band, their ability to work the crowd could be developed – they seem over reliant on clichés and calls for a circle pit every other song – but with a quality album full of crowd-pleasers like this, who needs talk between them?

Possibly the highlight of the lot is a rare live outing for the more melodic ‘Dying In Your Arms’, dedicated to the “troopers” over here for all we’ve been through. (A reference, I suppose, to the London bombings). That marks the real climax of the set, followed by favourites ‘Like Light To The Flies’, new single ‘A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation’ – with now traditional fist-pounding – and rousing finale ‘Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr’.

No doubt the band had been told they couldn’t have an encore – perhaps due to Sunday curfews – for not only had they played their biggest numbers, but no sooner had they left the stage than the lights came on and even the PA was cut out after the start of AC/DC’s ‘Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution’. Nonetheless, such has been the intensity of the preceding set that the capacity crowd are well sated. As they drift off into the night, dripping with sweat and exhilaration, hundreds seem to have acquired new Trivium t-shirts. When Matt asked who’d come back and see Trivium next time, the response was resounding – but we’ll be lucky to get the chance; I don’t think Trivium will be playing such small venues for too long.
(4/5)

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