It seems bizarre to say this about a band that has been around for over two decades and has 10 albums to their name, but there is a distinct impression after all these years that Trivium are still having to prove their worth. That great white hope tag that they had thrust upon them in the early noughties has proven to be one hell of an albatross and at the point where they should be settling comfortably into the status of elder statesman, they are still having to dispel the naysayers. Outside of their rabid fan base, there always seems to be a continual level of surprise regarding the amount of support and adoration that they manage to purloin. That perception of being a fisher price "my first metal band" act has been hard to shake, but by not caring about it and playing specifically towards their ever-increasing fanbase, Matt Heafy and co have built a surprisingly successful and enduring career.

The cavernous confines of the O2 Victoria Warehouse are sold out this briskly Saturday evening and by the time Trivium hit the stage at half nine, it is packed to the absolute rafters. To give them their dues, Malevolence have managed to pull an impressive horde of people for their 7.00 PM showing. The cynic in me would put that down to the fact that the venue’s positioning in a soulless industrial estate means that there are no nearby hostelries for support band deniers to camp out in, but the truth is Malevolence have been busy over the last few years building their own devout following. It has been a fascinating journey watching them evolve from snotty caustic newcomers to the well-rounded and distinctly melodic beast that we see before our eyes this evening. They absolutely own the big stage and come across as absolutely in control of the large attentive crowd. The jagged edges are beginning to be smoothed over and what is emerging is a highly professional but also immaculately precision-engineered heavy metal machine. 

I've seen them numerous times since we emerged from those lockdown years, but tonight is the first time I clap eyes on a band that is capable of ascending to a headline status. They have tamed the chaos of earlier shows and instead, they have concentrated their energies on becoming a tight, taught, and highly effective live act. They produce a gnarly and direct version of groove metal that is crushing and highly punchy, but doesn't stray too much from the template. Where the originality is, is in the way they present it. They are very distinctly a heavy metal band, but the way they operate on stage is taken directly from how a hip-hop collective would operate. They swap, interchange, and share the heavy lifting of keeping the crowd buoyant. What is most obvious is that they win a hell of a lot of new friends tonight and the cheers that greet Alex Taylor's announcement that they will be back at the end of the year for a headline tour, gives the distinct impression that within a few years, it will be them headlining halls of this size.

I am man enough to admit when I am wrong and God was I wrong about Heaven Shall Burn. But to give me some solace and to put some blame on them they have not gone out of their way to build their reputation on these shores. This is the first visit to this country in nine years. More staggeringly, their impending appearance at this year's Bloodstock will be the first-ever UK festival. This to a degree explains my ambivalence toward them as mid-afternoon appearances in sodden fields is the way that I have become on good terms with most bands.  But that doesn't take away from the fact that I was expecting to cope with two tracks and then retreat to the bar and instead found myself absolutely in rapture regarding what they presented.  For some reason, I was expecting a by-numbers dose of masculine posturing, and instead I was treated to a highly inventive and highly intoxicating dose of progressive Melo death.  

The first three tracks are incendiary slices of searing melodic death metal. Harsh but also drenched in pulsating riffs. But it is the fourth track, ‘Combat’ from 2010’s “Invictus”, that seals the deal for me. It sees them take the template of melodic death metal (essentially coarse vocals with Maiden guitarwork) and immerse it into a tank of industrial metal. The results are staggeringly good and feels thoroughly modern but also highly conscious of his past. I am not au-fait enough with their back catalogue, to provide any level of critique about what they play or don’t play, but what I do know is that I was swept away by the energy pulsating off the stage and by the inventive way that they were playing with a genre that can be rather formulaic. They get a generous hour to ply their wares and the biggest plaudit that I can give them is that come the end of the set all I want to do is to head home and raid Spotify to feast on what I have obviously been missing. But we have Trivium before I can indulge myself on a Heaven Shall Burn marathon.

The one advantage of being stuck on the balcony in the access area (a long story involving a pushbike and a malicious lorry) is that I get a Bird’s Eye view of the chaos that ensnares the crowd. The whole mass of human life below me from left to right and front to back becomes a swaying mass of undulating bodies. It is quite a sight to behold as the floor morphs into a swirling maelstrom of seething flesh. It is not the case of there being a pit and the rest of the participants, the whole auditorium has become the pit, and everyone is gripped by its gravitational pull whether they want to or not. The whole spectacle is a testament to the adulation that Trivium manage to elicit and the reaction that their impassioned performance provokes. From my vantage point in the gods, it is obvious that the band are blown away by the level of energy and euphoria that is coming from the audience in front of them.

On two separate occasions, the hijinks of the human vortex are curtailed in order to pull collapsed audience members out of the mire. Matt stops short of telling us to calm down, but instead likens it to the arbitrator role he plays with his own children. His affability and natural likeability is Trivium's secret weapon. For some unfathomable reason, he has managed to avoid the ego that plagues many of his other contemporaries, and instead he presents the allure of a man that is still pinching himself that he gets to do this for a living. At numerous points, he states that this isn't just the best show they have ever played in Manchester, but probably the best thing ever played in this country. From the mouths of other frontmen, this would come across as trite and disingenuous, but Matt is a man who wears his heart firmly on his highly tattooed sleeves and there is no doubt that he actually means this.

The pandemic is still screwing with continuity and whilst we get three tracks from the album (“What Dead Men Say”) that this much-delayed show was meant to promote, we only get one outing from their most recent recording. This is actually a crying shame as “In Court of the Dragon” is quite frankly a magnificent piece of work and a shining example of how to do traditional chorus-driven metal immaculately well. But those are small gripes, as the set itself is an impressive amalgamation of deep cuts and crowd pleasers and the inclusion of tracks not aired on previous nights (such as ‘Betrayer’ and ‘Drowned’ and ‘Torn Asunder’) tips its hat at those committed fans doing multiple shows.

There is no time for the charade of an encore. Instead, a masterly and majestically unfolding ‘Shogun’ gives way to a frantic and fraught ‘In Waves’, where three and a half thousand voices scream the lyrics back at Matt. A stomping ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’ brings things to a climatic conclusion, the pulsating pit given one last opportunity to swirl around in kaleidoscopic splendour. The dissenting voices may still cry foul about Trivium's inclusion at metal’s top table but tonight they majestically prove all their critics wrong. The connection between band and crowd was an astounding sight to behold and the fevered pace never let up. But above and beyond all of that this was quite simply an hour and a half of high-quality prime cut metal and there is no other better way of spending a Saturday night.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!

Trivium, Heaven Shall Burn, Malevolence