Trivium’s sold-out headline show at The Roundhouse was explosive. Supported by SikTh and SHVPES, Trivium lit the Roundhouse up with a sixteen track set that spanned from 2015’s ‘Silence in the Snow’ all the way back to 2005’s ‘Acendancy’. Their set included the absolute roarers of ‘Dying in Your Arms’ and ‘A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation’, and If there is one thing that cannot be denied, it is that Matt Heafy is an incredible frontman. He has grown into an incredible stage persona, and whilst it can be a bit theatrical at times, it is oh so enjoyable to watch!
SikTh appear to have not changed in any drastic way, right down to still wearing flares, plus throwing in a weird Korn-esque spoken word, and having lots of blast beats. An honourable mention also goes to SHVPES vocalist Griffin Dickinson for making the oddly timed decision to have a haircut halfway through their set, donating a mass of his locks to charity.
The show started with a full house sing-along to Iron Maiden’s ‘Run to the Hills’ before Trivium even take to the stage, and the energy is maintained throughout. A cacophony of sweaty men mosh and shout their way along with Heafy, their horns held high.
His vocal transitions are clean and distinct, and the performance is extravagantly genuine. They are playing to the crowd, but not for them. Trivium still plays these shows for themselves, they still look like they are having a truly great time on stage, and after this amount of time, that is no small feat.
Having grown up playing in Trivium, the exuberance of Heafy is still so much fun to watch – he is living his dream, and it’s clearly still amazing him. He bounds around the stage, unconstrained by needing to meet the microphone stand in the centre for each verse, and enamours the crowd with his exuberance. Tongue stuck out, he is shredding his heart out, and the crowd completely eats it up.
The acoustics of The Roundhouse only served to amplify the wall of sound; played up to by the unusual set up of five microphones shared between the trio of vocalists. As Heafy travelled through his line of microphones, not a word was missed, and the crowd didn’t let up either. There is something incredibly satisfying about a crowd that is highly engaged with a show – seeing a venue manage to all bounce in time is electrifying.
There is a special safe place created at a metal show, where grown men take their shirts off, and crowd-surf their way through piles of other sweaty men, to be cradled like babies in the arms of security guards as they are taken over the barrier. True to form though, the crowd was exceptional, and gave Trivium all the love they deserve for their long wrought journey to The Roundhouse.
The crowd was lukewarm through the opener, toasty for SikTh, and on fire for Trivium. There is absolutely no question who they were out to see on Friday night, and if their response is anything to go by, they were mighty pleased with the results.
RHIAN WILKINSON
