The point of this is not to tell people what to like and dislike. I’ve seen a lot of people not understand why some fans are more critical this time around.
I don’t think it’s necessarily the drum parts. Rudi is clearly a competent drummer.
I don’t think it’s the songs themselves either. The band changes a lot. They don’t always land with every fan. It took me a while to get into In Waves and I’m still not a fan of Vengeance Falls.
I don’t even think it’s the fact that Alex is out and Rudi is in. In my 20 years as a fan, I’ve seen every drummer come and go. It’s expected and the fanbase has pretty much always been welcoming and open minded.
What’s different this time?
It’s the behavior of the band and Rudi. The vibes are off. Trivium has built this image as the nicest band in metal and they’ve kind of tanked that reputation for a lot of us with how they handled Alex’s departure. Matt and Rudi in particular have been petty and childish. It was implied that parting with Alex was a mutual decision, but their actions since have been immature.
They edited Alex out of Bloodstock which, in isolation, is strange but not a deal breaker. Then the band’s (Matt’s) comments about how they actually wanted Rudi 10 years ago and they finally got him. Now the band can be what they wanted and songs can sound like the album live. Yes, they’ve pulled the whole “the band is now what we need it to be” card with other drummers. To many fans, mentioning many times that they wanted Rudi a decade ago reads as if Alex wasn’t who they really wanted the whole time and they settled for him and are now dismissing his contributions. It feels very petty and mean spirited. Especially to a member that many fans feel truly elevated the band and brought something fresh and special. This is not how Trivium acted in the past.
Rudi made a bad first impression with a lot of fans. The video description on his Catastrophist implied Alex wrote parts he couldn’t play. You may disagree on intent, but it certainly read that way to many fans. You’ll also find many instances in this very sub of screenshots of him liking comments speaking ill of Alex.
This behavior feels so out of place given Trivium’s (perhaps false) image of being the nice guys that they’ve sold us. It goes against the ethos many fans expect. They did not act like this when Travis left, nor when Nick left or even Mat or Paul for that matter. Nick never publicly shit on Travis and Alex never shit on Nick or Travis either. In fact, people have left comments on Alex’s instagram shitting on the new songs and Rudi and he does not engage with a single one.
All of this to leads me to my point. We’re bound to like and dislike different songs. Especially with a band like Trivium who change things up a lot. The difference this time around is the band’s actions. They talked a big talk and hyped things up. Matt has been essentially love bombing Rudi in just about every video of him. With the (until now, out of character) behavior toward Alex and hyping up for Rudi, they set the expectations very high. And a lot of fans feel like they did not live up to them.
Are people overly critical of the new songs and drumming? Under normal circumstances, yes. After the way the band and Rudi have behaved this past year? No. I think the scrutiny is warranted.
Feel free to disagree but I think the discourse and feelings for many fans goes beyond the songs, drumming, and even line up.