“‘The Phalanx’ was like an old muscle car sitting in the driveway with no engine,” says bassist Paolo Gregoletto about the song’s unique evolution and origin story. “It was a demo from ‘Shogun’ that had the middle section removed for another song (‘Torn Between Scylla And Charybdis’), demoed again on ‘Silence In The Snow’ but ultimately scrapped, and now it has found its home on the new album. Once we knew the album was going in a more epic, proggy direction, I immediately thought of the song and pitched the idea to the others. With a few minor changes to some chorus parts, a brand middle section, and the orchestrations from Ihsahn, ‘The Phalanx’ was reborn. It’s got a lot of new and old riffs and I think you should dig this if you liked ‘Shogun’.”

TRIVIUM partnered with Elder Scrolls Online to create the video, which premiered on their #GatesOfOblivion Year-End Stream on Bethesda Games‘ Twitch channel. TRIVIUM‘s passion for Bethesda‘s vast collection of franchises made it a no-brainer for the band to officially partner with Elder Scrolls. The band members are fans of the game, especially with this year’s Elder Scrolls content, and the ties into TRIVIUM‘s music.

“The Phalanx” appears on TRIVIUM‘s tenth album, “In The Court Of The Dragon”, due out October 8 via longtime label Roadrunner Records. The record was produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur and recorded in the fall of 2020 at Full Sail University in Orlando. The album cover is an original oil painting by French artist Mathieu Nozieres.

Last month, TRIVIUM shared the album’s title track, “In The Court Of The Dragon”, which featured an epic intro composed and orchestrated by Ihsahn (EMPEROR) and was accompanied by an official short film music video directed by Ryan Mackfall. Loudwire called out the song as “a skillful blend of dynamics. And blast beats just sound really, really good beneath Matt Heafy‘s soothing clean singing” while Revolver labeled it “epic.” Guitar World christened second single “Feast Of Fire” as “pummeling” and “quintessentially TRIVIUM,” as Metal Injection declared it “really, really catchy.”

“In The Court Of The Dragon” track listing:

01. X
02. In The Court Of The Dragon
03. Like A Sword Over Damocles
04. Feast Of Fire
05. A Crisis Of Revelation
06. The Shadow Of The Abattoir
07. No Way Back Just Through
08. Fall Into Your Hands
09. From Dawn To Decadence
10. The Phalanx