Let’s cut straight to the chase: if you have even a passing interest in melodic metalcore, you should already be intimately familiar with genre pioneers Trivium. ‘Ascendancy’ is twenty years old at this point— hell, Matt Heafy was still a teenager when it released— but that hasn’t stopped the band from continuing to top festival lineups and sell out shows. Still, new EP ‘Struck Dead’ seems keen to revitalise that sound, packing itself full of the bright guitar work and show-stopping choruses we know Trivium for. It’s in its execution that the project stumbles somewhat.

‘Struck Dead’ is far from some drastic reinvention for Heafy and company— it’s a record born on the road, and you can tell. Trivium have stayed well within their wheelhouse here, serving up a collection of songs that look more to the past than they do forge ahead into the future. 2005’s ‘Ascendancy’ looms over the entire EP, with Heafy even admitting at their Bloodstock headline set earlier this year that the record’s aim was to recapture the magic that made that album so special. At least on the face of it, it’s mission accomplished for Trivium. ‘Struck Dead’ sounds bold and punchy, lending the guitars a bright sheen that fits the opening chokes of single ‘Bury Me With My Screams’ as well as it does the melodic hooks of the title track: it’s a similar story for Heafy himself, who continues to stand as the archetypical metalcore frontman. Really though, there’s no star burning brighter than drummer Alex Bent, who’s truly given his all in his last recording with the band. Bent attacks the EP with a surgical precision that only makes each breakdown that much sharper and each riff that much more interesting: he may be leaving Trivium, but it’s heartwarming to see him go out in style.

In many ways, the songwriting across this new EP is similarly earnest: ‘Struck Dead’ has no secrets tucked away (save for the acoustic guitars that open ‘Six Walls,’ though they’re hardly some left-field inclusion to be gawked at), instead relying on all of Trivium’s usual core tenants. The band are a success story for a reason, of course, and these songs work because of it. ‘Bury Me With My Screams’ opens with a welcome blast of ferocity, refusing to take its finger off the trigger for an entire minute— even the track’s chorus feels brief, plunging us back into blistering drum hits and rabid guitar chugging before long. If the new release has anything to set it apart from its predecessors, it’ll be in its emphasis on breakdowns: near-every riff that makes up the title track feels designed to spawn mosh pits, making the cut’s transition into a particularly upbeat chorus feel rather jarring. As you would hope for though, Trivium save the best for last on ‘Struck Dead.’ ‘Six Walls’ would probably have fit seamlessly onto ‘Ascendancy,’ with its memorable chorus and endless stream of new and inventive ideas (including a particularly unconventional take on your average breakdown) going down an absolute treat.

If the EP is simply a victory lap for the group, though, it’s perplexing to see them floundering when it comes to the overall construction of these tracks. Oftentimes, it feels like Heafy and company were contractually obligated to stretch these songs past the five minute mark, as if the release might not have enough material otherwise— the result is a project that often loses its momentum, like Sisyphus pushing the boulder only to let it roll once more. Aside from some neat guitar work, ‘Bury Me With My Screams’ feels like it’s spinning its wheels once its second chorus is over: the track is only halfway done at that point, but the endless stream of forgettable breakdowns and repeated lyrics aren’t really pulling their weight to round things out. It’s a similar story with the title track, which feels uncomfortably cobbled together from a web of tangential ideas. Even ‘Six Walls,’ creative as it may be, hardly required a seven-minute runtime: ‘Struck Dead’ only comprises seventeen minutes of material in total, making its all the more heartbreaking to see so much of it wasted like this.

We’re betting that you know who Trivium are, and if you do, there’s probably enough charm in ‘Struck Dead’ to win you over. This is Heafy and company doing what they do best, delivering three tracks full of characterful guitar work, polished production and strong enough writing to carry the day. Even still, the EP is hardly the clean sweep it should’ve been, jumbled and confused as it can often seem: when the band are playing things so safe, it’s disappointing to be left with anything less than flawless. ‘Struck Dead’ is a good release, but not a great one: where Trivium will go moving forward remains to be seen.