Metal Underground.com

For a while, it looked like "The Crusade" would be Trivium's "Master Of Puppets," an album of such legendary greatness among fans that nothing else the band could come up with would match it. With "Vengeance Falls," the members of Trivium may have set a new high for themselves.

A ton of the credit for this has to go to singer/guitarist Matt Heafy, who delivers a near-perfect vocal performance, blending his best clean vocals yet with the shouts that have been there since the "Ascendancy" days. From the opener, "Brave This Storm" onward, Heafy operates on a level that, quite frankly, we've never heard before from him.

Heafy and fellow ax-man Corey Beaulieu deliver the goods instrumentally as well. Take, for example, the stuttery riff that powers the title track, "Vengeance Falls" or the Maiden-meets-Metallica gallop of "Strife." The acoustic opening of "At The End Of This War" is a great palate cleanser before the thrashing starts again (and good god, does Nick Augusto bring the speed on this one).

Despite the controversy surrounding the choice of Disturbed singer David Draiman as producer, only one song seems overtly influenced by him - the overly dramatic "Through Blood And Dirt And Bone."

Trivium's "Vengeance Falls" matches the heights hit by "The Crusade." It's a superb thrasher with the best vocals this band has ever offered.