Trivium's second album Ascendancy made them darlings of the rock press but now it's time to see if the first single from their forthcoming follow-up can increase their assault on the UK charts.
Anthem (We Are The Fire) starts sprightly enough but it soon becomes clear that this has late '80s metal flowing through its veins. The bassline is straight from Steve "Iron Maiden" Harris' Bass 101, and by the time the chorus kicks in (complete with pseudo-crowd vocals) you'll be reaching for your sleeveless denim patch-jacket and self-perm kit.
This will be a big hit live but retro can only be cool if it is done well. Plagiarism on this scale ends up turning the song into a game of "which band does this remind me of?" Trivium have cited that the new album is an evolution from the previous one - let's hope so because this single feels a little bit like one step forward, two steps back.
