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Once regarded as strong contenders to be the next big metal band, Trivium have struggled over the past couple of albums to get themselves out of a seeming creative rut. Well, they have finally done it.

Silence In The Snow reeks of old school influences – Maiden, Rainbow and Dio-era Sabbath are the most obvious – but has enough contemporary momentum not to get bogged down in a power metal morass.

Matt Heafy’s vocals are clear and concise, while he and Corey Beaulieu unleash some devastating twin guitar work. This combination is seen at its most potent on Dead And Gone, offset with some stinging harmonies, and The Ghost That’s Haunting You, which has the texture of a majestic stroll through a riff that comes from the toxic Pantera parchment but is also laced with a dexterous melody.

Silence In The Snow is not a classic album, but this puts Trivium firmly back on course.

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.