Shogun (Trivium album)

Shogun (将軍, Shōgun) listenⓘ is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Trivium. The album was released worldwide on various dates between September 23, 2008, and October 1, 2008, through Roadrunner Records. It is their last release to feature original drummer Travis Smith. Work on the album is noted to have begun with producer Nick Raskulinecz in October 2007,[2] with the band stating that they chose not to work with Jason Suecof again as they wanted to explore new ideas.[3]

Shogun
Studio album by
Trivium
ReleasedSeptember 23, 2008
StudioThe Sound Kitchen Studios, Franklin, Tennessee[1]
Genre
Length66:37
79:55 (special edition)
LabelRoadrunner
ProducerNick Raskulinecz
Trivium studio album chronology
The Crusade
(2006)		 Shogun
(2008)		 In Waves
(2011)
Singles from Shogun
  1. "Kirisute Gomen"
    Released: August 11, 2008
  2. "Into the Mouth of Hell We March"
    Released: September 21, 2008
  3. "Down from the Sky"
    Released: March 1, 2009
  4. "Throes of Perdition"
    Released: May 27, 2009
Alternative cover
Special edition

Background

In an interview with Metal Injection,[4] Matt Heafy stated:

We started demoing after Family Values, like October... We started writing some songs, demoing them. The demo quality is so good it sounds like a real album, which is awesome, so it gives us a really good basis to compare and fix shit, so we've been revising and going back in and changing shit up. We're doing another set of demos. I think we're probably going to have 30 songs to pick from and we're working with Nick Raskulinecz (who produced for Foo Fighters, Rush, Velvet Revolver, Shadows Fall and Stone Sour).

In an interview with Revolver,[5] Corey Beaulieu stated:

We want to capture the best ingredients of everything we've done. Each song has a little bit of everything, going between something heavy and then melodic, and then back to something heavy. So it has a really interesting balance. On The Crusade, Matt did almost all singing, so this time we're bringing back some of the screaming that's on Ascendancy.

Composition

Influences, style and themes

The reason we picked that word is because when you think of a word like shogun, it sparks all this vivid imagery and storytelling, especially when you look into the definition. It's the highest ranking military general in Japanese times. We really dug it. We felt it was an appropriate name for the album.

— Matt Heafy, About.com[6]

Shogun largely features a continuation of the band playing thrash metal,[7][1][8] metalcore,[9][10] and progressive metal, the latter exhibited by technical instrumentation and longer song lengths.[11][12][13] It sees a prominent return of Matt Heafy's screaming vocals, which were a rare occurrence on The Crusade. The album is also the band's first album produced by Nick Raskulinecz. In an interview for About.com, Heafy described the album's musical direction as a combination of various aspects including: "the past, present, and future of Trivium, all on one CD" and that is the "next evolutionary step".[6] When asked about the change in his singing style, he said: "It's the kind of thing that happened naturally."[6] Shogun heavily features 7-string guitars and 5-string bass guitars, which had been used sparingly on The Crusade.

The group did not want to make an album where all songs had the same singing style, like in The Crusade, and decided to just let their music flow naturally and unbiased. Unlike The Crusade, which had some songs focusing on famous and controversial murders/crimes, this album has a few songs that deal with ancient Japanese military customs and several regarding Greek mythology, some serving as metaphors to be interpreted by the listener. "Into the Mouth of Hell We March" and "Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis" detail the story of Odysseus choosing whether to face the giant whirlpool Charybdis or the 6-headed monster Scylla. "He Who Spawned the Furies" is about the Titan Cronus devouring his children and castrating his father Uranus, creating Aphrodite and the Erinýes (the Furies). "Of Prometheus and the Crucifix" references the daily torment of Prometheus and alludes to crucifixion of Jesus Christ, serving as a metaphor for enduring torment by the public for daring to contribute something new to society. "Like Callisto to a Star in Heaven" is written from the perspective of the nymph Callisto, detailing her rape and impregnation by Zeus and her transformations into a bear and into Ursa Major. "Down from the Sky" features a contemporary theme, chastising those who spark wars for profit or religion, and warning of nuclear holocaust.

With a duration of over 11 minutes, the album's title track is the longest Trivium have ever recorded.

Release and promotion

On June 16, 2008, Trivium posted a bulletin on their MySpace profile titled "New Album Update" with an embedded YouTube video,[14] implying that the album would be released on September 30, 2008, by Roadrunner. On July 31, the first track from the new album, "Kirisute Gomen", was made available as a free digital download through the Roadrunner Records website for 24 hours only. On August 8, the cover art for the album was revealed. On August 12, the fourth track from the new album, "Into the Mouth of Hell We March", was made available for purchase on iTunes. On September 1, the third track and first single from the album "Down from the Sky" was made available for purchase on iTunes, as well as in stores. On September 2, the music video for "Down from the Sky" was released (exclusively) on MySpace.[15] The band would later upload "Throes of Perdition" to their MySpace page on September 17 and on September 23 the complete album was added.[16]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic66/100[17]
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[7]
AllMusic[1]
IGN[18]
Rock Sound
Ultimate-Guitar.com[19]
MetalSucks[20]
PopMatters[10]
Sputnikmusic.com

The album received mostly positive reviews, with Chad Bowar of About.com praising the band's progress on songwriting, as well as their musicianship.[7] Bowar finishing its review stating: "Shogun won't silence Trivium's legions of critics, but I think most fans will like the harsh vocals along with the great riffs and memorable melodies."[7] Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic described Shogun as "Trivium's most challenging and ambitious album yet."[1] IGN's Ed Thompson wrote that with the release of their fourth full-length album the "band have done what absolutely needed to be done."[18] The band's ideas and influences were praised by Thompson, and considered Shogun the best of their first four albums.[18] Thompson also defined Shogun as the band's "best effort to date."[18]

Commercial performance

Since its release, Shogun has sold over 300,000 copies worldwide.[21] In the United States in its first week of release sold 24,000 copies and debuted at number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart,[22] and the top 100 in 18 other countries, including number 6 on the Japanese international charts, number 4 on the Canadian Hard Rock Charts, number 1 on the UK rock charts and number 4 on the Australian charts. As of March 2009, the album has sold around 70,000 copies in the United States since its late September release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[23]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Trivium, except where noted

Standard edition
No.TitleLength
1."Kirisute Gomen"6:27
2."Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis"6:49
3."Down from the Sky"5:34
4."Into the Mouth of Hell We March"5:52
5."Throes of Perdition"5:54
6."Insurrection"4:57
7."The Calamity"4:58
8."He Who Spawned the Furies"4:07
9."Of Prometheus and the Crucifix"4:40
10."Like Callisto to a Star in Heaven"5:25
11."Shogun"11:54
Total length:66:37
Special edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Poison, the Knife or the Noose"4:14
13."Upon the Shores"5:21
14."Iron Maiden" (Iron Maiden cover)3:43
Total length:79:55
Special edition DVD
  • The Making of Shogun (A behind-the-scenes documentary capturing the making of the album)
  • Shogun: The Riffs (Instructional videos for guitar and bass)
Songs written for the album but recorded for later albums
No.TitleLength
1."Silence in the Snow" (later recorded for Silence in the Snow[24]) 
2."The Phalanx" (later recorded for In the Court of the Dragon[25]) 

Notes
  • "Into the Mouth of Hell We March" was featured on the soundtrack for the 2008 video game Madden NFL 09.
  • "Down from the Sky" was featured on the WWE SmackDown! Vs Raw 2010 soundtrack.
  • In the special edition of the album, the song "Shogun" fades out earlier, making it a length of 11:22.

Personnel

Trivium[26]

Production

Charts
Chart (2008) Peak
position[27]
Australian Albums (ARIA)[28] 4
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[29] 30
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[30] 72
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[31] 19
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[32] 48
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[33] 17
French Albums (SNEP)[34] 75
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[35] 27
Greek Albums Chart 39
Hungarian Albums Chart 26
Irish Albums (IRMA)[36] 30
Italian Albums (FIMI)[37] 55
Japanese Oricon Albums Chart 17
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[38] 28
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[39] 34
Scottish Albums (OCC)[40] 18
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[41] 42
UK Albums (OCC)[42] 17
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[43] 1
US Billboard 200[44] 23

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[45] Silver 60,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Shogun - Trivium | Songs, Reviews, Credits". allmusic.com. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  2. "Metal Injection gets exclusive details on upcoming Trivium album". Metal Injection. January 30, 2008. Retrieved March 19, 2008.
  3. Wiederhorn, Jon (February 2008). "Brutal 2008 Preview – Trivium". Revolver Magazine.
  4. "Metal Injection interviews Trivium at NAMM 2008". Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  5. Revolver Magazine, "Brutal 2008 Preview" issue
  6. Bowar, Chad (September 27, 2008). "Trivium Interview: A Conversation with Matt Heafy". About.com. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
  7. Bowar, Chad. "Trivium - Shogun Review". About.com. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved October 8, 2008.
  8. Thompson, Ed (October 6, 2008). "Trivium – Shogun Review - Music Review at IGN". Au.music.ign.com. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
  9. Sylvia, Dave de (October 1, 2008). "Trivium - Shogun (album review 7)". Sputnik Music. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
  10. Stewart, Bill (November 23, 2008). "Trivium: Shogun". PopMatters. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  11. "The 20 greatest Trivium songs - ranked". Kerrang!. Sam Law. September 18, 2020. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  12. "Trivium - The Sin and the Sentence". Grimm Gent. Vaim. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  13. "CHOICE CUTS - TRIVIUM". The Circle Pit. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  14. Trivium's YouTube video showing new album release date on YouTube
  15. "Down From The Sky Video by Trivium on Myspace". Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  16. "TRIVIUM: Another New Song Available For Streaming". blabbermouth.net. September 16, 2008. Retrieved September 17, 2008.
  17. "Shogun Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More". Metacritic. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  18. Thompson, Ed (October 6, 2008). "IGN: Shogun Review". IGN.com. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
  19. Team, UG (April 23, 2009). "Shogun Review – Trivium". Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  20. Neilstein, Vince (October 6, 2008). "TRIVIUM SILENCE THE HATERS; SHOGUN IS THE REAL DEAL". Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  21. "Trivium Announce Tour With Slipknot, Premiere New Video". .gibson.com. January 27, 2009. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  22. "TRIVIUM's 'Vengeance Falls' Cracks U.S. Top 15". October 23, 2013.
  23. "Trivium: Shogun First-Week Sales Revealed". Blabbermouth.net. October 8, 2008. Archived from the original on October 13, 2008. Retrieved October 8, 2008.
  24. Neale McGeever (August 12, 2015). "Interview: Trivium at Bloodstock 2015". RAMzine. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  25. "TRIVIUM Shares 'The Phalanx' Video". Blabbermouth.net. October 1, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  26. "Trivium: Vengeance Is Fine". Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  27. "Trivium: More Shogun First-Week Chart Positions Revealed". Blabbermouth.net. October 13, 2008. Archived from the original on December 23, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2008.
  28. "Australiancharts.com – Trivium – Shogun". Hung Medien.
  29. "Austriancharts.at – Trivium – Shogun" (in German). Hung Medien.
  30. "Ultratop.be – Trivium – Shogun" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  31. "Trivium Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard.
  32. "Dutchcharts.nl – Trivium – Shogun" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  33. "Trivium: Shogun" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
  34. "Lescharts.com – Trivium – Shogun". Hung Medien.
  35. "Offiziellecharts.de – Trivium – Shogun" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  36. "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 40, 2008". Chart-Track. IRMA.
  37. "Italiancharts.com – Trivium – Shogun". Hung Medien.
  38. "Charts.nz – Trivium – Shogun". Hung Medien.
  39. "Norwegiancharts.com – Trivium – Shogun". Hung Medien.
  40. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  41. "Swisscharts.com – Trivium – Shogun". Hung Medien.
  42. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  43. "Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  44. "Trivium Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
  45. "British album certifications – Trivium – Shogun". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
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